By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Telecommunications group Telkom is investigating the cause of a massive service interruption affecting the company’s internet and phone call services.
The network is now restored and Telkom is giving its customers a 1GB data token to apologise for the inconvenience.
According to Downdetector.co.za, a website that monitors user complaints about network availability, there was a spike in reported problems related to the Telkom network.
The problems appear to have started at around 2pm, though it’s not yet clear what has led to the widespread gremlins.
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.”
Social media users took to X and other platforms in droves on Monday to complain about network access problems on Telkom.
The downtime comes a day after two subsea cables were severed north of Durban, impacting connectivity along Africa’s east coast. However, it is unlikely that the events are linked.
The damage to the east coast cables came just days after the last of the cables that were damaged on the west coast of the continent at the beginning of March had been repaired.
There were widespread internet outages on almost every internet service provider platform when four cables snapped on the west coast at the same time – seemingly due to seismic activity.