Sports streams in Ghana have been affected by damaged undersea network cables. Fiber optic cables encircle Africa, although some parts of the continent have faster speeds than others. This is because private and public organizations have made investments over the years to ensure connectivity.
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Fibre Optic Connectivity in Africa
It’s clear that South Africa is in a good position when it comes to fiber optic connectivity, but when breakages happen it can affect a lot of the country. Users on the affected network experienced severe disruption before the traffic was rerouted. This is a technical process that depends on there being an alternative route and an agreement in place.
It’s similar to driving to a destination using Google Maps. If there is an accident on the road, then the software will find another way to get to your destination. Several countries, including Liberia and Sierra Leone, however, do not have spurs, so only one fiber optic cable comes into the country. When the cable breaks, internet connectivity stops. Ghana has experienced a number of high-profile internet outages as a result of undersea cable damage. Disruptions like this have had serious consequences, including disruption to essential services.
Sports Streams Impacted by Internet Outages
Ghana relies on five different CUTCs, including WACS, SAT3 and ACE. This brings capacity to the inland carriers. Four out of five went down, with four affected cables having a landing station in Abidjan. Other countries also have cables that run under the sea, including the UK. In the UK, 60 cables in total are under the ocean.
If something happened to these cables, then streaming services would go down, slots UK websites would not be able to provide games like Goal Blitz to residents, and sports streams would also not be shown. This would also go on to impact betting, including live volleyball betting and streamed football games. When people can’t access the latest odds, whether it’s for club competitions like the European Champions League in volleyball or the Premier League for football, this can impact a fan’s experience. When live sports streams are disrupted, fans also miss out on critical moments, whether it's a late goal or a clutch moment save.
Although numerous games have been disrupted as a result of the internet outage in Ghana, thankfully, streaming providers are continually investing in new ways to counter situations like this. Whether it is putting the match up on-demand so people can watch it later on, or posting play-by-play updates so people can look back and see what happened during the game.
Even though live sports streaming has been disrupted by the damaged undersea cables, a lot of work has been done so far to make sure that the repairs are carried out in a timely manner. It was suggested that fishing boats had caused the outage by snapping some of the thinner cables, and this is a major issue in other countries, including the UK as well, which has a prominent fishing trade. With countries like Africa being on a bigger scale, however, when disruptions happen, they tend to be more severe and more widespread.