The Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) has revealed internet users in the West African nation will be unable to enjoy maximum internet service for five days after the authority began preparations to tackle technical problems on Liberia’s ACE fibre cable.
The LTA’s Acting Chairman, Abdullah Kamara, in a chat with newsmen in Monrovia said maintenance work on the fibre in the affected area has commenced.
“So once the maintenance work starts, services will be minimised. It is possible for some operators you may not notice anything. Like I said, the operators have started to put into place mechanisms to ensure that customers are not greatly affected,” he said.
The maintenance work will affect subscribers of the various telecoms companies that own stakes in the ACE fibre cable – Lonestar Cell, Cellcom, and Libtelco.
In addition, Kamara said the LTA is introducing a gateway monitoring system through which around US$7 million will be generated as government revenue annually.
“We expect the gateway operation to be live by April 2013, to be graced by Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, who will cut the ribbon,” he added.
The authority’s engineering and technology commissioner, Henry Benson, said the Liberian government is earning returns from the investment made on the cable.
He said: “We are getting a lot of application requests from investors in and out of Liberia, requesting new technologies that have arrived on the fiber cable in Liberia.”
