Complete Maritime Profile & Reviews of Leon-Thevenin

On May 14, 2024, at 3:45 p.m. UTC, the cable-laying vessel 'Léon Thévenin' exited Cape Town Harbour on a mission to address recent cable faults affecting the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and Seacom cables. These faults, which surfaced on May 12, severely impacted internet connectivity across several East African nations, including Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, leading to significant capacity reduction. Reports indicated that users in these areas experienced a staggering drop in traffic by as much as 75%, resulting in poor streaming experiences with platforms like Netflix and difficulties accessing various online services. The disruptive faults were primarily localized in the EASSy and Seacom cables off the East Coast of Africa, which knocked out essential subsea capacity between East Africa and South Africa. Compounding the situation, several terrestrial cable issues were identified, further diminishing capacity between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The 'Léon Thévenin' is anticipated to reach the job site at around 5:00 a.m. on May 18, equipped with a full suite of advanced cable operation tools, including grapnels, buoys, ropes, dead weights, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) designed for detecting, cutting, recovering, joining, and testing undersea fibre cables. Prior to this mission, the vessel had docked in Cape Town Harbour on April 25, following successful repairs on the SAT-3 cable in Abidjan. As the 'Léon Thévenin' embarks on this crucial operation, stakeholders in the affected regions are eagerly awaiting the restoration of normal internet service.

In a significant move to address the recent undersea cable disruptions, the cable layer vessel 'Léon Thévenin' has reached one of the four locations experiencing severe cable breaks. Accompanying efforts include the 'C.S. Sovereign' from Global Marine, which is also on its way to assist in recovery operations initiated due to a suspected submarine landslide on March 14, 2024. This landslide has critically affected the undersea cables, resulting in extensive Internet outages in South Africa and along West Africa's coastline near Abidjan. The cables impacted include the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT-3. Investigations by the cable operators have determined that sabotage or other human-related activities, such as anchorage from boats, can be ruled out as causes, making the landslide the primary suspect. The fallout from this incident led to a significant two-hour outage for Vodacom's data network and disrupted Microsoft's locally hosted cloud services, leaving users unable to access their emails and Microsoft 365 applications. Additionally, the Microsoft Azure facilities in South Africa were offline for an extended period, affecting operations for companies like Yoco, a recognized payments processor. Fortunately, services began to stabilize once affected companies arranged for additional capacity on functioning undersea cables, such as Google’s Equiano. Nevertheless, Vodacom and Microsoft have yet to clarify why local connectivity was also disrupted due to international bandwidth issues. WIOCC, a network infrastructure company and stakeholder in WACS, has shared updates pertaining to the restoration of the damaged submarine cables. The 'Léon Thévenin' departed Cape Town on March 19 and is set to focus on the SAT-3 repair, having reached the fault zone on March 29. Given that WACS is vital for many South African telecommunications providers, with SAT-3 offering significantly less capacity, repairs to SAT-3 are forecasted to be completed by the second week of April, barring any unexpected complications. Meanwhile, the 'C.S. Sovereign' is slated to work on repairs for MainOne, WACS, and ACE, with an expected arrival date of April 8. This vessel embarked from London on March 21, momentarily stopped in Brest on March 22, and later in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on March 31, before continuing its journey. If all goes as planned, the anticipated dates for restoring functionality to the remaining cables are as follows: ACE by April 17, WACS by April 28, and MainOne by May 9. Although the landslide is the suspected cause of these breaks, WIOCC has noted that no formal assessment has confirmed this diagnosis.

The cable ship Leon Thevenin, part of Orange’s reputable fleet, has established Cape Town Harbour as its operational base, poised to ensure seamless connectivity for Orange Business Services’ clients. Whether embarking on urgently needed repair missions or embarking on new deployment voyages, Leon Thevenin plays a crucial role in keeping Africa linked to the global digital landscape. Recently, enterprise clients of Orange Business Services in South Africa had an exclusive opportunity to tour the vessel, gaining insights into Orange’s significant contribution to enhancing broadband infrastructure across the African continent. The tour, led by Captain Gerald Couturier and Jean-Luc Lasnier, Vice President for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Orange Business Services, offered a fascinating glimpse into the meticulous process of installing and maintaining over 170,000 kilometers of submarine cables that traverse the world’s oceans, including an impressive 140,000 kilometers of fiber optic lines.