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Harare - A core platform failure at Zimbabwe’s largest internet access provider saw Zimbabwe lose internet services for the better part of Tuesday.
The internet outage started at 11:30 and lasted until 17:00 and affected most operators that use Liquid Telecoms Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless Global.
At the time of writing this story it was still unknown as to what caused the outage.
However, Econet Wirelesss Zimbabwe, which also rides on liquid, issued a statement saying: Econet Wireless apologises to its valued customers for the data outage experienced on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 resulting in customers being unable to access the internet and related data services on our network.”
Company spokesperson Fungai Mandiveyi said the outage was due a technical fault which has since been resolved.
“Econet sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused,” he said.
Liquid Telecom is one of the fastest growing internet service providers in Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general.
It provides state-of-the-art fibre internet which links Zimbabwe and the Southern African region to the outside world. It is the biggest internet access provider with a market share of more than 80%.
Its sister company, Econet Wireless, controls 75% of mobile phones meaning the outage affected approximately 75% of the telecoms market. Social media platforms such as WhatsApp were also affected.
The outage also affected most of the businesses that rely on online based activities including sending emails.
State owned fixed telecoms provider Telone also issued a statement saying: "This is due to faults that occurred on our main links through South Africa and Botswana.
"Our back back-up link through Mozambique has remained active with limited connectivity."
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