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Torres to hold assessment meeting with Cabinet members
Acting governor Ralph DLG. Torres will hold a meeting today with Cabinet members to assess and update the government on regarding recent communications breakdown that continues to affect Saipan.
As of yesterday, the island has yet to have Internet access, although mobile services and critical businesses such banks, are now back online.
The massive communications outage occurred last week when services provider IT&E reported severe damage to its undersea fiber optic cable servicing the CNMI due to bad weather.
The damage cable lies between Saipan and Tinian and as of yesterday, repair works on the cable and a backup microwave dish continues.
Acting press secretary Matt Deleon Guerrero said it is back to normal for government offices today, starting with a Cabinet meeting.
He said the acting governor will give an update on the communications breakdown after the meeting.
Deleon Guerrero also said Torres appreciates the patience and understanding of government employees who had to endure long queues in the bank for their salaries.
The communications breakdown affected online backing transactions and automated teller machines, prompting the public to troop to their banks to manually transact.
As of yesterday, Deleon Guerrero said there is still no word yet from IT&E as to when the backup system will be fully repaired.
IT&E last week said the undersea cable will take three months to repair while the backup system will be repaired in a only matter of days. The microwave backup system will provide mobile services but Internet access speeds will not be as fast as before.
