Cable chopping causes web and cellphone outages in Arctic Alaska

by lullapedia · 4 September 2023

C/S IT Intrepid begins deployment of submarine fiber in Unalaska. (Laureline Cross/KUCB)

Residents of the communities of North Slope and Northwest Alaska skilled web and cellphone outages this week after an undersea fiber-optic cable was severed, almost certainly attributable to ice.

Quintillion president Mike McHale mentioned repairs are underway, however {that a} full restoration of service through restore ships may take as much as two months.

“This will probably be an extended hiatus,” he added. “We’re speaking about six to eight weeks to mobilize the ship and take away the ice from the realm, however that is the present scenario.”

McHale mentioned on Tuesday the outage impacts service in Kotzebue, Nome, Level Hope Wainwright and Otkiajvik. Particular person service suppliers in these communities have been requested to acquire correct numbers of affected shoppers.

GCI spokeswoman Heather Handyside mentioned in a press release Tuesday that prospects all through rural Alaska, notably within the communities McHale talked about, “might expertise slower Web and wi-fi service” attributable to cable outages. GCI has moved some companies to satellite tv for pc communications in addition to the TERRA regional fiber and microwave community.

“GCI is coordinating intently with Quintilion to remain knowledgeable of restore and restoration plans,” mentioned Handyside. “We admire our prospects’ endurance till service is totally restored.”

Based on McHale, the submarine cable was minimize roughly 34 to 36 miles north of Olektok Level, northwest of Deadhorse. It occurred in waters about 90 toes deep. He likened the “icy ice” occasion to the seismic grind that precedes an earthquake.

Quintillion contractors laid almost 1,200 miles of fiber optic cable off the coast of northern and northwest Alaska in the summertime of 2017 to connect with an overland fiber cable that the corporate has laid from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. (quintillion drawing)

“It is an space the place land ice and sea ice meet,” he mentioned. “And so the glacial ice — mainly transferring ice that hits the bottom ice after which[sinks]form of like tectonic plates — I suppose distorted the underside of the ocean flooring, after which went down under the depth at which we have been buried.”

Sections of the cable close to the minimize are buried 10 toes under the ocean flooring, McHale mentioned, a design characteristic meant to guard them from the weather. It was not clear on Tuesday how deeply the cable was buried on the actual level of the minimize, which have to be decided by cameras on board the remotely operated autos.

“We determined to be ice-protected, and you recognize, nice care has been taken of that,” he mentioned. “However you get a pressure majeure occasion like — it seems prefer it was a really aggressive occasion.”

Restoring service is an “overarching” precedence for Quintillion, in line with McHale, who plans to supply extra public updates on Quintillion’s Fb web page. He mentioned the outage was the primary for the submarine cable system since service started in 2017.

“We’re the primary and solely firm making an attempt to construct a subsea fiber optic community within the Arctic, and I believe we have performed fairly nicely up to now,” he mentioned. “However, as I mentioned once more – Mom Nature.”