The fault in the Seacom undersea cable, which has led to disruption of Internet services between India and Africa, will take a week to repair, according to a Seacom spokesman.

"This is the one thing we have been dreading," Seacom spokesperson Suveer Ramdhani told the daily Business Day.

He said initial investigations reveal that there was a fault on the component that amplified the signal that connects Mumbai to the east coast of Africa and Europe.

"We had to get a ship to get it out and it is 4,700 m deep. We will repair it and also determine the cause of the fault.

"The actual duration is unpredictable due to external factors such as transit time of the ship, weather conditions and time to locate the cable," Ramdhani said.

Ramdhani said that alternative arrangements were being made and Internet traffic was being transferred onto other undersea cables.

Two of the largest Internet service providers in South Africa, Internet Solutions and MWeb, appeared to be the hardest hit.

They were among the first to take up space on Seacom when it was launched last year amid expectations that it would bring down broadband costs for South Africans.

MWeb is in urgent and ongoing discussions with a number of providers to obtain alternative bandwidth until the Seacom capacity has been fully restored," MWeb CEO Derek Hershaw told the daily.