A major telecommunications outage due to undersea cable cut has shut off the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands' online and phone connection to Guam and the world.
It is unlikely that the undersea cable linking CNMI to the rest of the world was cut intentionally or as a result of unnaturally causes. However, the incident exposed once again the vulnerability of our modern communication infrastructure.
The incident has disconnected the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands internet, phone, banking and other communications with Guam and the entire world.
The outage made impossible ensuring the continuity of important services such as withdrawing money from AMTs, credit-card purchases, teleconferencing for health care, and all type of communications.
This is IT&T CNMI's only fiber-optic cable connection between Northern Mariana Island and the outside world. No backup system is in place and the only mean left to call Saipan was through satellite phones. However, they are not many on the island, aside from those at certain government agencies and at IT&E's Saipan office.
The parent company of IT&T, PTI invested $14 million in the year 1997 to lay an undersea fiber-optic cable linking Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. From Guam, the cable is linked forward to an undersea cable across the Pacific.
Saipan has an economy based on tourism and the magnitude of the outage is heavily felt. Tourists and residents alike were unable to pay for food and other purchases at stores by using their credit or debit cards as well as withdrawing cash from ATMs.
According to the company, the disruption in communication services in Guam is limited to customers of IT&E, who use second-generation phones and on some third-generation phones. In Saipan, the impact is much broader. All communication means are affected because other operators utilize the same cable. Customers of DOCOMO Pacific in Rota, Tinian, and Saipan also lost text, phone, and mobile data services.
Before the undersea optical cable for fast communications has been installed in 1997, IT&E used a microwave system as a backup of the undersea cable outage and for phone calls. According to IT&E, the microwave system is being restored as a temporary solution to bring back some level of communication to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Restoration of connection for health-care services, banking, and phone connection is considered as high priority. It is unknown for the moment how long it will take to restore the undersea fast communications cable.
