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Massive outage catches Capital Hill by surprise
Government offices on Capital Hill were caught by surprise yesterday by a massive communications outage although the impact seems to be minimal.
From left, IT&E executives Vhelma Palacios, head of engineering; Fred Hill, regulatory compliance officer; Rose Soledad, managing director; and Hans Mickelson, Sales and Marketing manager, seated at the back, give an update to the CNMI government regarding repair works on a damaged undersea fiber optic cable. (Joel D. Pinaroc)
A staff at the Legislature said the Internet outage did not have a major impact on operations. Documents had to be hand-delivered within the different offices because the e-mail system was down, the staff said.
“We cannot upload some documents, but the impact was only minimal, because the landlines are still working,” a staff disclosed.
Communication lines, including mobile phone calls and Internet access, broke down early Wednesday effectively isolating Saipan from the rest of the world.
The outage has yet to be fully resolved as of yesterday, as repair works on a damaged undersea fiber optic cable being used by service provider IT&E continue.
The repair is expected to last for months, although a backup microwave system is expected to restore some of the basic services, according to IT&E.
Rep. Francis Taimanao (Ind-Saipan) said the first thing he noticed was the lack of mobile phone services from IT&E.
Taimanao said IT&E gave an advisory regarding the outage, but did not give other details.
Taimanao, who heads the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications, said he also immediately convened committee members.
IT&E was also invited by Taimanao’s office to give an update and what contingency plans the service provider can offer.
”Our employees were caught by surprise, although this is not the first time that there were service disruptions,” Taimanao said.
It turned out that the outage was anything but ordinary.
