In the not too recent past, the country was rocked by an internet catastrophe now called the internet blackout. The incident virtually brought the entire country to its knees because for almost the whole day, no internet-based activity could be performed. So what really happened that day? Most people in Ghana very easily get used to things not working. A lifetime of regular power outages, irregular water supply and widespread disregard of road regulations tend to make you think it is normal for things not to work and rather abnormal when everything works just fine. The lack of internet access on Thursday, the 21st of January was however not something people were willing to adapt to. Logging onto the internet especially for the many facebookers was impossible whether on the mobile handset, laptop or desktop. It really then dawned on people how subtly but very quickly the internet had woven itself tight-knit into their lives. People expecting remittances from abroad could not access their monies, online students could not attend lectures and exam candidates missed crucial exams, emails with very crucial instructions and information also got stuck somewhere in cyberspace. But how do you explain that all this was because the SAT 3 undersea cable was damaged, and what is that SAT 3 by the way? Thanks to Sunday Edition, you will get to know, that is if you missed the bulletins around the time. It is like a water hose, except that it’s about three or four times bigger and does not have water running through it. Lying in the bed of the ocean off the coast of Accra, it connects several African countries to Europe and elsewhere. So that if you click on a webpage or photo on facebook to enlarge it, a signal is sent at an incredible speed through this cable and back with results. It is still not very clear what caused the actual damage except we are told there was planned maintenance that got out of hand. Whether it was a whale that chewed off the cable or some submarine cut it off, we don’t know. The disruption was however not limited to Ghana as several African countries also hooked onto it also suffered the downtime. The SAT 3 undersea fiber optic cable remains the main connection Ghana has to the www. Even though there are some in Ghana who connect to the internet through satellite, well over 90 percent of our internet is powered by the SAT 3 managed by Vodafone, and that’s why the cable fault hit us so hard. On the day, however, I was lucky my Blackberry service provider was not hooked onto the SAT 3; there was a plan B so I could get my mails quite normally I and wasn’t so affected. Hopefully we may not have to endure another internet blackout because the National Communications Authority says Ghana should be very soon connected to at least two additional fibre optic cables, the Glo Submarine and Main One. We’re also told, that should bring a lot more speed to the internet and hopefully by extension lower tariffs for internet use as there will be more suppliers of bandwidth. Credit: Israel Laryea for Sunday Edition on Joy FM