6 July 2010, 12:00 p.m.

Seacom has released a statement this morning saying that it will take a minimum of 6 to 8 days to fix a faulty cable that has lead to traffic between Europe, India and Africa being affected.

Seacom is a 17 000 km submarine fibre optic cable linking countries in East and Southern Africa to the rest of the world.

 

The weather and the time the repair ship takes to find the faulty cable might add more days to the estimated repair period.

 

Traffic within Africa is not affected.

 

"We note Seacom services between Mumbai and Mombasa are down since 9.19am GMT/5th July 2010. We are still investigating," Seacom said in an official statement.

 

"Current investigations indicate that a repeater has failed on segment 9 of the Seacom cable, which is offshore to the north of Mombasa. This unexpected failure affects traffic towards both India and Europe. Traffic within Africa is not affected," Seacom said. "Once mobilised, the repair ship is deployed to the location of the fault to pick up the cable. The cable is then brought on board to undergo the repair - the faulty element is replaced with a new repeater - before being put back in the water," Seacom said.