Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, group CEO of Smile Communications has appealed to the federal government to create an environment where all Nigerian and non-Nigerian cable providers will have active redundancy on each other so that consumers will not be impacted negatively in case of similar occurrence in the future.
This came on the heels of the recent cut on West African Cable System (WACS) and SAT3 cables that resulted in the disruption of internet services in the country.
According to Farroukh, “We should take learnings from the recent WACS and SAT3 cable cuts that resulted in the disruption of internet services in the country. For example, if submarine cable ‘X’ was subject to a cut, other cables existing in Nigeria should be able to carry on the lost capacity without negatively impacting the end users.”
Farroukh, pleaded that the federal government and the industry regulator to create an environment of active redundancy among fibre optic cable operators.
Smile, the West Africa pioneer 4G LTE broadband service provider, renowned for the primacy of its customer’s service, regretted any inconvenience caused by the slight disruption in its service rendition in some areas and assured all its stakeholders that their best interest remains upmost in all its consideration.
Against the background of the recent downtime and disruption of internet service occasioned by the cut in the submarine cables, Smile Nigeria has also commended Nigerian cable providers, MainOne and Globacom, for partnering with the company to overcome the challenge swiftly.
In a statement released in Lagos, Smile commended both MainOne and Globacom for the relentless support both firms offered to the company to aid the quick delivery of additional capacity required during the recent WACS submarine fibre cut.
Expressing his delight, Farroukh, who noted the huge demand for Internet Protocol (IP) capacity from other operators in Nigeria during the period of the fibre optic cable cuts, appreciated the commitment shown by MainOne and Globacom to make quick alternative arrangements with multiple upstream providers to accommodate the Smile telecommunications network.