January 15, 2018-   On Friday evening, January 12, thanks to cooperation and assistance from the Ministry of State, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S. Navy, PNCC crews completed the repair of an undersea cut to the fiber optic cable serving Peleliu and Angaur, enabling the restoration of communications to both islands.

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On Tuesday afternoon, January 9, PNCC received a system alarm that service transmission to Peleliu and Angaur was down. PNCC determined that the undersea fiber cable that brings service to Peleliu was cut/damaged about 4,600 feet off of Meyuns station.  This is underwater at about 80 to 90 feet deep.

A PNCC technical response crew was deployed to the area ready to dive for further assessment of the damages.  However, there was a U.S. Navy ship anchored at the area and the PNCC crew was prevented from approaching the ship.

PNCC immediately contacted the Ministry of State and advised them of the situation.  MOS informed PNCC that approval from the U.S. government was required first before the PNCC team could approach the Navy ship or enter the area to do any repair work.

A public announcement was issued to inform the public of the service disruption to Peleliu and Angaur.

On Wednesday, January 10, PNCC received communication from the captain of the US Navy ship that we had clearance to approach the area to do work. PNCC’s technical team was deployed to the area to conduct assessment work.  At 10:00 am, PNCC was able to locate the damaged portion of the cable.  It was determined that the ship anchor hooked and broke the cable in two (2) sections.

The PNCC crew then proceeded to repair the damaged cable.  It takes around 10 to 12 hours to replace, splice and reconnect just one section of damaged fiber cable.  Repairs were completed and all PNCC services were restored to Peleliu and Angaur by early evening of Friday, January 12.

“PNCC sincerely apologizes to our customers in Peleliu and Angaur for the inconvenience caused by this unplanned outage,” commented Leo Ben Teriong, Acting General Manager.  “We are grateful for the rapid response from the Ministry of State, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S. Navy ship captain and personnel who assisted PNCC staff in the repair operations.” [/restrict]