A cable cut on the undersea broadband network Seacom in Egypt has been restored, according to the privately funded venture.

According to a press statement on Seacom’s website, the network experienced a service affecting outage that started in the early hours Friday 25 May between Abu Talat in Egypt and Marseilles in France.

Cybersmart and South African internet service provider MWEB also picked up on the disruption this morning, as they posted network notices about the break on their websites.

“Our upstream provider reports a break in East Africa on the TGN-EA cable system,” a Cybersmart notice read.

“The break is terrestrial and located in Egypt and is scheduled to be repaired by Egypt Telecoms,” the notice went on to say.

An MWEB network notice said the company is “currently operating at reduced International capacity due to a SEACOM outage.”

But SEACOM today have posted a notice on their website saying the network is “back up and stable”.

Cuts on undersea cables connecting Africa have been under the spotlight this year, as they have caused widespread internet outages on the continent.

The 10000km Eassy network, which connects countries along Eastern Africa to high-speed Internet, experienced a cut between Djibouti and Port Sudan earlier this year.

Also, the East African Marine System (TEAMS) 5 000km undersea fibre-optic cable, stretching from Kenya to the United Arab Emirates, was also cut by a ship's anchor in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The disruption caused a 20% slowdown in Internet speeds in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan, the BBC reported.