TelEm group hit by broken
ARCOS cable, fried switch
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten was left largely without vital Internet services on Sunday as the island territory became a victim of major damage to the ARCOS fibre optic cable that carries calls from the Caribbean to the US and the rest of the world.
And, as though those problems were not enough for the TelEm group of companies, a power surge Saturday night reportedly “fried” resisters, fuses and capacitors on one of TelEm’s main switches in the Cole Bay area and, among other things, crippled telecommunications at Princess Juliana International Airport and service to more than 300 other customers. (See related stories)
The ARCOS cable links the Caribbean and Central and South American to the rest of the world. Smitcoms uses the SMPR1 cable to carry its international traffic from St. Maarten to Puerto Rico and from there it is connected to the ARCOS cable that carries the traffic to the US and rest of the world.
There were conflicting reports about the location of the damage to the ARCOS fibre optic cable. One report said the cable apparently had been damaged in Puerto Rico. Another report said it was believed that the cable had been damaged in Santo Domingo.
However, the damage, which took place around 1:37GMT Sunday (9:37pm local time Saturday) reportedly caused extensive disruption to telecommunications within the Latin America-Caribbean region.
The interruption in the ARCOS cable service has also affected the use of ATM machines locally and airlines’ communication.
Because TelEm and TelCell subscribers depend on Smitcoms to terminate international calls, they too were affected by the breakage in the ARCOS fibre optic cable.
TelEm’s Outside Plant Manager Anthony Carty said the outage in Cole Bay/Simpson Bay had been compounded by a loss of Internet and international communication services via Smitcoms that are needed for technicians to liaise with engineers in the US regarding further repair of the damaged switch.
TelEm’s Managing Director Edward Benjamin said his technicians had been working since early Sunday to solve the problem in Cole Bay/Simpson Bay and should be able to restore service shortly.
Internet service providers whose services are terminated off-island by Smitcoms through the SMPR1 Cable, such as IDL Networks and Caribserve, also experienced interruption in services.
CaribServe General Manager Roy Richardson said that if the CaribServe service was not restored by 6:00am today, the company would provide alternatives for its subscribers to access e-mail. He said the company was also looking into alternative connections through the French side as a backup.
By press time TelEm had been able to restore telephone service to Cole Bay. A temporary solution was put in place for PJIA.
New World Networks NWN in Miami, which owns and maintains the ARCOS fibre optic cable, said Sunday its technicians were working on a temporary alternative by rerouting its traffic to the MIA Cable.
Some reports Sunday said the damage to the ARCOS cable was most likely in an above-ground breakage in Puerto Rico. That should facilitate a quick turnaround and vessels and helicopters were being dispatched to the area of concern for an assessment. However, if the breakage was in the area but underwater, NWN warned that repairs could take much longer, as they would need to use a vessel in Curaçao to effect the repairs.
United Telecommunication Service UTS in Curaçao, the landing party for ARCOS, stated Sunday night that it had learnt that the problem with the cable was in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. It was said that the problem would be resolved by the end of Sunday night.
UTS subscribers who used either TelEm land lines pre-selecting UTS as intentional carrier by dialling 0101 or UTS’ GSM-Chippie service were not affected. UTS sends its signal through French St. Martin to the ECFS cable that terminates in St. Thomas via the America 2 Fibre Optic cable.
Manager, technical operations Smitcoms Eldert Louisa said the company remained in contact with NWN. The fibre optic cable breakage has affected not only St. Maarten, but also Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Costa Rico, Panama and Nicaragua.
Louisa said, “Smitcoms has been able to maintain limited capacity links with additional E-1 lines, each of which allows 30 calls to be transmitted at the same time. Therefore some customers will be able to make international calls, but because of the demand on that line, congestion of the system will become a problem until normal service is resumed hopefully by Monday.”
UTS St. Maarten General Manager Glen Carty said Sunday that UTS has offered Smitcoms assistance in routing its international traffic. Carty said all telecommunication companies should sit down and find alternatives to ensure that there is always enough backup should something major go wrong.
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