Tanzania, May 15 -- On Sunday, Tanzania was plunged into an internet abyss. The culprit? Damage to a submarine cable nestled deep within the Indian Ocean had severed Tanzania's connection to the web. This outage, impacting not just Tanzania but 11 other African nations, exposed a troubling truth: Tanzania's internet infrastructure was a house of cards, precariously balanced on a single point of failure.

The cause of the disruption pointed towards a break in Seacom's cable more than 100 kilometres off the coast of Mozambique. A maintenance ship has arrived on site and the estimated repair timeframe of a week or two leaves Tanzania in a precarious position.

This vulnerability stemmed from Tanzania's overreliance on just two ageing submari...