# 💣How Last Mile Outages adversely impact Businesses in South Africa & How Nepean Network's SD-WAN mitigates the Risks💥 ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1726034393947/4836e68d-fddc-4e00-8865-1ee01043454a.png align="center") Nepean Networks is able to interoperate with any services over fibre and supports PPPoE, DHCP and Static IP address assignment. Fibre isn’t always as reliable as perceived by the business.  It experiences packet loss and outages can be debilitating.   A fibre outage takes longer to repair than a wireless outage. The network performance management is able to keep an ISP honest as it can uniquely measure loss correctly via its hub and spoke architecture ### When Fibre goes Rogue ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1726034445910/61fb3a7b-af49-4761-8f6c-fa6c8fc38c15.jpeg align="center") Fibre optic networks are prone to outages caused by maintenance conduct by water or power companies.  Additionally, also vandalism takes its toll. Many fibre network operators have their conduits sharing the same routing as water pipes and power cables.  Damage to the fibre optic conduits is incurred by the use of backhoe tractors repairing utility service.  These outages can stretch to days. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1726034494851/d05cd1ba-003b-40f9-a39f-dbf66ffd322c.png align="center") In many areas the choice of fibre might also be limited to a single operator meaning fibre redundancy is limited.  Also, many fibre diverse paths are only diverse for a short distance before they converge. Also, the outages are exacerbated by vandalism which are just as destructive as backhoe tractors. In some cases, the actual maintenance work by an operator is poorly managed leaving points of presence, manholes and handholds a spaghetti mess.  The result is connecting one customer, disconnects another.  Also these maintenance tasks degrades the optic signal levels. Resilient and reliable SD-WAN saves the day! It is not good enough to install on a single FNO with "diverse paths" as highlighted in this article: %[https://hubandspoke.amastelek.com/demystifying-sd-wan-debunking-the-diverse-fiber-path-fallacy] Here are various posts and articles about outages that references the wide spread problem: %[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronaldxbartels_telkom-network-suffers-national-outage-activity-7377985385286500352-3S62] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7201652021647523841] %[https://techcentral.co.za/massive-telkom-network-outage-affecting-users-nationwide/244559/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7132367013577973761] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214572025028177920] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214572767105470464] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7037361636617142272] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7075124629056430081] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7029474527839465472] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7187115111126323201] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7047264896001949696] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214574216401084417] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214574585613021184] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7074722511980048384] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7087729980918394880] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7188899694771617793] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7166697011122049025] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7079401181491400704] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7076580286196498433] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7075014422422831105] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7174681636570030080] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7132350779780136960] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7173233350436970496] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7065971512666693632] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7155116272903499776] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7184161514981912576] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7173231606135009280] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7068832302130241537] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7069941924752728064] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7182343619498962944] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7074722210942263296] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7113574004933754880] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7075124629056430081] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7069952756475736064] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7070708644392148992] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214577184512876544] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214577855060463617] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214578339833868290] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214578688611262466] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214579051154313217] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214579576943869952] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214580481994981376] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214580821557469184] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214581219378798592] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214584394986995712] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214586240359120896] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214586712646119424] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214587009732911105] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214587315648667648] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214587751457837056] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214588762327031808] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214589249348653056] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7037362443236388864] %[https://rekord.co.za/79207/mass-internet-outage-throughout-south-africa/] %[https://techcentral.co.za/seacom-wacs-problems-hit-sa-internet/194163/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214590595489554433] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214591108134146049] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214591571462148097] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214591971586154496] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214592969033601024] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214593288090075136] %[https://www.zdnet.com/article/carpet-bombing-ddos-attack-takes-down-south-african-isp-for-an-entire-day/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214594268353445888] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214594568481099776] %[https://www.citizen.co.za/northcliff-melville-times/uncategorized/2020/03/28/cable-cut-slows-south-africas-internet-speed/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214595016864763905] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214595458210422785] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214595743603429377] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214596133946327040] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214596433717436416] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214596752933343232] %[https://stuff.co.za/2021/10/12/vumatel-internet-outage-in-gauteng-2/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214597704927109120] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214618026124447744] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214618463510642688] %[https://www.itweb.co.za/content/nWJad7beWEkvbjO1] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214618849512460290] %[https://www.itweb.co.za/content/GxwQDq1DmLKMlPVo] %[https://www.itweb.co.za/content/mYZRX79ggRxqOgA8] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214630890218373122] %[https://stuff.co.za/2022/11/22/it-isnt-just-you-mtn-is-actually-down/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214631349100376064] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214631707881197568] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214632033816330241] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214632365703254016] %[https://www.itweb.co.za/content/5yONPvErnJV7XWrb] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214632827353460736] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214633148914016257] %[https://stuff.co.za/2023/02/06/rsaweb-confirms-cybersecurity-attack/] %[https://stuff.co.za/2023/02/01/loss-of-rsaweb-service-results-in-outage/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214633932527439873] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214634671911890947] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214635615521259520] %[https://techcentral.co.za/its-hell-mobile-networks-face-load-shedding-nightmare/224094/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214636077716799488] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7195051151438864384] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7194721445900423168] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7026947550985269249] %[https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/cable-theft-rain-and-load-shedding-almost-2-000-power-outages-for-joburg-residents-over-5-days-20220413] %[https://www.citizen.co.za/lifestyle/technology/joburg-south-residents-plunged-internetoutage-fiber-cable-breaks/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7214637002179153920] %[https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-06-22-outages-caused-by-variables-says-vumatel-as-joburg-subscribers-experience-loss-of-connectivity/] %[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronaldxbartels_outages-sdwan-lastmile-activity-7239879308259844097-vzdF] %[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronaldxbartels_frogfoot-hit-by-new-years-outage-activity-7280674302872408064-TYLP] %[https://www.capeindependent.com/article/frogfoots-new-years-internet-outage] --- ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1726512153012/581cc735-58b3-4582-9a08-9526214b6545.png align="center") Ronald ensures that Internet inhabiting things are connected reliably online at [Nepean Networks](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fusion-broadband-south-africa/) - the leading specialized SD-WAN provider in South Africa. 👉 [Contact Nepean](https://nepeannetworks.com/company/contact-us) --- %[https://hubandspoke.amastelek.com/cappuccino-a-day] --- ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1759640081090/5c4c777e-3c7e-4e52-aa77-26e35ad51d89.jpeg align="center") Ronald Bartels | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldxbartels/) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ron_mastelek/) --- [The Hub & Spoke | SD-WAN Blog](https://hubandspoke.amastelek.com/) [The Morning Patrol with Ron Mastelek 💪](https://ron1821.substack.com/)