Violent protest action in Africa's beleaguered Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has led to a total shutdown of telecoms services.
According to Vodacom, all DRC mobile operators and Internet service providers received an order from the DRC authorities yesterday afternoon to suspend Internet services. "The mobile operators were also instructed to suspend SMS services."
The deadline for the implementation of the shutdown was midnight, and all companies complied.
"The order was issued in accordance with Article 46 of the Telecommunications Law of the DRC, which gives the state the authority to prohibit the use of telecommunications installations," adds Vodacom.
According to Africa and Middle East Telecom Week, there are five other mobile operators active in the DRC: Airtel, Orange, Congolese Wireless Network, SuperCell and Tigo. Office Congolais des Postes et T'el'ecommunications (Congolese Office of Postal Services and Telecommunications) is the country's incumbent fixed-line operator.
In May last year, ITWeb reported that Vodacom had ambitions of doubling its DRC subscriber base over the following five years. At the time, Vodacom had 10 million subscribers in the central African country.
Headquartered in SA, Vodacom also has operations in Tanzania, Mozambique and Lesotho.
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