Safaricom has notified its customers of an emergency service scheduled by its main submarine cable carrier on Friday night.
The service by The East African Marine System (TEAMS), which runs a submarine cable network of the same name, is planned to run from 10 pm on Friday (January 6, 2012) night to 10 am on Saturday. During that time (12 hours), the TEAMS submarine cable will not be available. Full recovery to TEAMS cable could take longer.
"As TEAMS shareholders, we have been informed of the planned works. Mitigation measures will be put in place, but some customers may experience slow internet speeds and some level of service degradation during this period. We sincerely apologize for this," said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
Collymore assured customers that Safaricom would direct the affected traffic to satellite and other submarine cable systems and stressed the firm's commitment to ensuring normal services during the maintenance period and a quick recovery thereafter.
The TEAMS submarine cable, which runs from the Kenyan coast to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, carries a significant proportion of Safaricom's internet and international voice traffic. It was the first sub-marine cable system to land on the Kenyan coast, connecting the country to the rest of the world through a high-bandwidth connection. Safaricom is a major buyer of capacity on TEAMS, besides being an anchor shareholder in the landmark public-private venture.