Telkom hit by massive network outage affecting users nationwide

South Africans on the Telkom network have been left frustrated by a major network outage.

Customers vented their frustration on social media about internet issues with reports that the problem had started around 2pm on Monday.

Downdetector.co.za, a website that monitors user complaints with about network availability reported a spike in problems related to the Telkom network.

Over 8 000 network outage reports have been submitted about Telkom with 23% describing the issue as a “total blackout” of the mobile network.

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Telkom outage

Telkom said on X it was aware of the problem.

“Dear Customers, we are aware of the network outage affecting our customers. Our technicians are hard at work to restore the network. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Dear Customers, we are aware of the network outage affecting our customers. Our technicians are hard at work to restore the network. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

— @TelkomZA (@TelkomZA) May 13, 2024

Telkom did not indicate what caused the outage or when its network would be restored.

Internet outage

The Telkom outage comes on the back of an internet disruption that affected services in South Africa and a host of countries on the east coast of the African continent on Sunday.

Ben Roberts, group CTIO at Liquid Intelligent Technologies confirmed the disruption on X.

“Internet to East Africa is severely impaired. All sub-sea capacity between Eastern and Southern Africa is down. EASSy Cable – Fault confirmed Seacom Cable – Observing Fault that occurred at same time. Three cable cuts in Red Sea (Seacom, EIG, AAE1) remain unrepaired.”

According to the BBC, Internet users in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda complained about poor connectivity.

Cable cut

The report indicated that one cable that runs alongside the coast of East Africa, known as Eassy, had been cut earlier some 45km north of Durban.

In March, widespread outages were also reported in countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso which were also put down to cable failures.

The disruption affected online services including video streaming platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+ among others.

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