Transformer fire disrupts Safaricom services in Eastern Nairobi

Thursday, April 21, 2011…A fire incident involving a transformer belonging to KPLC has damaged an overhead fibre cable carrying crucial traffic for telecoms firm Safaricom, leading to service disruption in several parts of eastern Nairobi.

The incident  involving a Jamii Telecoms owned cable, has resulted in the disruption of voice, data and M-PESA services in parts of Buru Buru, Umoja, Embakasi, Eastleigh and Kayole. Pockets of Industrial Area and Mombasa Road have also been affected.

Safaricom has a significant portion of its transmission traffic carried over an extensive fibre optic network on KPLC lines as a way of dealing with rampant cable cuts associated with terrestrial cables.

"We sincerely apologize for this disruption. Our engineers and partners from KPLC and JTL are actively engaged in the search for alternative routes for subscriber traffic and we hope to find a resolution within a couple of hours. Given the nature of the incident, total resolution will require physical replacement of the affected cable," said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

Thursday, April 21, 2011…A fire incident involving a transformer belonging to KPLC has damaged an overhead fibre cable carrying crucial traffic for telecoms firm Safaricom, leading to service disruption in several parts of eastern Nairobi.

The incident  involving a Jamii Telecoms owned cable, has resulted in the disruption of voice, data and M-PESA services in parts of Buru Buru, Umoja, Embakasi, Eastleigh and Kayole. Pockets of Industrial Area and Mombasa Road have also been affected.

Safaricom has a significant portion of its transmission traffic carried over an extensive fibre optic network on KPLC lines as a way of dealing with rampant cable cuts associated with terrestrial cables.

"We sincerely apologize for this disruption. Our engineers and partners from KPLC and JTL are actively engaged in the search for alternative routes for subscriber traffic and we hope to find a resolution within a couple of hours. Given the nature of the incident, total resolution will require physical replacement of the affected cable," said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.