In mid-April, South Africa experienced a significant disruption in its digital infrastructure, shedding light on a potential vulnerability in the nation's fibre networks. The outage, which affected a large section of Openserve's fibre network, has raised concerns despite the presence of redundancies within the system.
Internet service providers (ISPs) reached out to MyBroadband to express their grievances over the outage. The cause was traced back to a power failure that rendered Openserve's equipment in Teraco's Durban data centre offline. This outage not only impacted Openserve's network but also affected smaller fibre operators who relied on Openserve for backhaul services.
According to reports, the outage lasted for two days, causing widespread chaos among affected ISPs and their customers. Openserve initially attributed the downtime to Teraco's scheduled power maintenance activities. However, questions arose as to why Openserve's equipment failed during a planned maintenance window.
Industry insiders speculated that Openserve's equipment might have been misconfigured or experienced other technical errors. Openserve refuted claims of misconfiguration, attributing the outage to a dual power failure partly caused by Teraco's planned work.
One of the crucial issues highlighted by this incident is the disincentive for ISPs to invest in redundancies. Under Openserve's previous wholesale model, ISPs could pick up their traffic at any interconnect point during a failure. However, this places immense strain on national long-distance fibre routes, making it impractical for ISPs to establish redundancies.
Some ISPs suggest the alternative of having more points of presence in the same region to mitigate risks. However, this solution is not foolproof and comes with its own set of challenges. Additionally, Openserve reportedly charges higher rates for ISPs to connect at alternative facilities, discouraging them from adopting redundant strategies.
When questioned about the possibility of reducing costs for ISPs to link up at multiple exchange points, Openserve declined, citing its commitment to providing seamless connectivity across the country. According to Openserve, their pricing reflects the investment in network infrastructure required to maintain this level of service.
The recent outage underscores the importance of addressing single points of failure within South Africa's fibre networks. As the nation increasingly relies on digital connectivity for various aspects of life and business, ensuring the resilience and reliability of these networks becomes paramount. It calls for collaboration between fibre operators, ISPs, and regulatory bodies to implement robust measures that safeguard against future disruptions.
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