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Lads from Lagos cut off

419ers go back to the telex

The lads from Lagos, and lots of other more deserving folk, have lost all internet access, thanks to the failure of a submarine cable linking West Africa to Spain and Portugal.

Reports suggest Benin, Niger, Nigeria and Togo have all lost connections. Telcos are trying to find alternative routes, such as satellite links, but Nigeria has lost 70 per cent of its internet access.

A ship has been dispatched to check on the cable, but this process is likely to take a week to ten days at least.

The SAT-3 cable provides international telephone calls, as well as much of Nigeria's internet access. Many banks and businesses have been almost completely paralysed.

Anil Verma, CTO at Suburban Telecom West Africa, said the company had redundancy built into its network on land, as does the SAT-3 cable itself, but the Benin landing cable was less robust.

The telco is currently looking for alternative ways to provide access while the cable is fixed, AllAfrica.com reports.

Bad news for the 149m residents of Nigeria of course, but we might all see a fall in spam if the small number of very prolific Nigerian 419-ers are forced to take a few days off. ®

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