IT&E: Return to normal Internet today

The CS Durable progressed through repairs on IT&E’s damaged fiber optic line over the weekend, bringing IT&E closer to restoring full Internet service as early as the wee hours of this morning, officials of the telecommunications firm said.

The CS Durable is a cable repair ship hired by IT&E. On Friday, IT&E said its crew began repairing the damage to the fiber optic line off the Saipan coast in the mid-afternoon.

The CS Durable lies off the coast of Saipan near Coral Ocean Point as it continued repairing IT&E’s damaged undersea fiber optic cable. (Dennis B. Chan)

“We are making progress…If everything goes [well] tonight, everybody should see a marked difference in data” services in the morning, Mickelson told Saipan Tribune.

PTI chief executive officer Jim Oehlerking announced the start to repairs in a press conference on Friday. PTI is the parent company of IT&E.

Oehlerking told reporters on Friday that they were still looking at a 48-hour timeframe for repairs, before bringing back Internet to “pre-cut” capabilities.

“We are going to begin hopefully on Sunday restoring full capabilities to different services. We don’t want to disrupt the services that are currently in place during normal business hours so over a series of days between 12am and 4am [we will be] swinging back traffic,” Oehlerking said.

When asked yesterday, Mickelson described the damage as a “cut to the cable” caused by the “many years of being out in the ocean” amid strong weather conditions.

On Saturday, Saipan Tribune observed the CS Durable off the Saipan coast near the Coral Ocean Point Resort.

A restricted access tape surrounded the work site.

CS Durable and IT&E repair crew and were seen working on the beachside. Divers and dive equipment were seen on the shore.

A series of buoys, which appeared to run along the fiber optic line, was set from the shore to the repair ship off the coast.

On Friday, Oehlerking said land crew were preparing for the termination of the cable. “We are running [the line] all the way from past the break point. We are going to do a cut and do a splice and take it all the way into the shore, and bring it into our manhole on the shore.”

Mickelson said Friday that the CS Durable deployed a remotely operated vehicle in the water to go down and map out an area and route for the new cable.

Oehleking said before the splice was done the repair ship would test the cable and make sure there were “no other problems with it.”

According to Mickelson, the ROV was traversing the cable line, but not all the way to Tinian.

Repairs began after IT&E secured all necessary local and federal permits to conduct their work.

Oehlerking said as they went through this process there was an additional requirement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that they did not think would be required but turned out was.

The CS Durable arrived last Thursday morning. It is part of TE SubCom’s global fleet of cable repair ships. It is a 140-meter long “Reliance Class” vessel, specifically designed and constructed for cable maintenance and construction.

Oehlerking estimated the overall break repairs would cost about $2 million.