South Africans can breathe a sigh of relief after international internet connectivity was restored by the crew of a cable repair ship early on Wednesday.

An unprecedented simultaneous cable break of two Atlantic Ocean-based submarine cable systems in January saddled internet users in the country with reduced speed on international browsing and also had an impact on international voice calling and mobile roaming.

Infrastructure provider Openserve's spokesperson, Pynee Chetty, said on Wednesday that confirmation was received at 1:30am from aboard cable ship Leon Thevenin that "the portion of the SAT3/WASC repair offshore Congo was complete, concluding  a long and complex restoration process of an unprecedented simultaneous cable break”.

The vessel departed from Cape Town on January 22  on its repair mission. It will now proceed to offshore Ghana to undertake a power-related (shunt fault) repair on the WACS cable.

“This fault is not affecting traffic on WACS. If conditions allow, the entire mission is still set to be completed around February 25 with the vessel returning to Cape Town,” said the statement.

“The infrastructure provider thanks its clients for the patience exercised during this time and is most pleased that it could collaborate with industry partners and other cable consortiums to minimise the impact as much as it did.”