Internet disruption from tomorrow as TEAMs cable plans maintenance

MOMBASA, KENYA: The East African Marine System (TEAMS) cable will from tomorrow undergo maintenance works that will lead to internet disruption.

The scheduled, preventive maintenance works on the TEAMS Cable is aimed at enhancing the security of the cable at UAE Off-Shore against anchoring ships and external aggression following the proposed expansion of UAE Port of Fujairah is planned for July – August 2016.

The actual downtime of the system will be from 20th – 28th July 2016. The works carried out after 28th July 2016 will not be service affecting.

“This planned cable reinforcement works is designed to increase security of the TEAMS cable against anchoring ships and external aggression. The timing for Preventive Maintenance Works has been chosen in compliance with the UAE Port of Fujairah timelines to avail more anchoring space required for expansion of the Port,” said TEAMS General Manager Joel Tanui.

“During the time of complete system downtime, estimated at a maximum of 10 days, customers are likely to experience slow internet speeds because of bandwidth constraints as result of limited traffic restoration via other cable systems. Thereafter, the remaining protective works will be carried out after the system is re-powered and traffic restored,” he added.

All the preventive maintenance works are estimated to take about 2 weeks, subject to favourable sea weather conditions, with every effort being made to reduce the overall time as much as possible.

It is estimated that the Preventive Maintenance Works on TEAMS cable, including costs for temporary traffic restoration via other cables during the TEAMS cable outage will about USD 3.0 Million (Kshs 300 Million), excluding loss of business as a result of heavily constrained bandwidth supply to contracted customers.

TEAMS is a landmark public-private partnership and the premier undersea cable system serving the entire East African region. Besides the Government of Kenya, the other shareholders in the TEAMS consortium include Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Liquid Telecom Kenya, Jamii Telecom, Wananchi Telecom, Access Kenya Group and Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group.