A damaged fiber-optic cable caused the statewide outage that affected Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Wavecom Solutions, and likely TW Telecom customers today. TW Telcom and Wavecom Solutions equally own the damaged fiber-optic cable (Hawaii Island Fiber Network).
I’m very surprised that water may have leaked thought cable’s sheath damaging the fiber. This particular cable was put into service only in 1997. So, it’s way too early for the sheath to get worn down.
It may be three to five weeks before the cable is repaired. Oceanic Time Warner is re-routing the links to the neighbor islands via the mainland or alternative providers in the meantime.
The State of Hawaii has only three statewide fiber-optic cables Paniolo Cable Company LLC (more information here, and here), Hawaiian Telcom, and TW Telecom/Wavecom Solutions co-owned Hawaii Island Fiber Network.
Sandwich Isles Communications has heavily contributed to Sen. Inouye’s re-election campaign. SIC is likely hedging their bets that Senator Inouye can persuade the FCC to reverse the recent NECA decision to deny subsidies for their recently completed inter-island submarine fiber-optic network. A favorable FCC ruling would prevent an involuntary chapter 11 bankruptcy filling by Sandwich Isles and Paniolo Cable Company LLC.
The HDOT hasn’t officially accepted Grace Pacific’s work on the recently resurfaced Queen Kaahumanu Highway extension yet. This is why the construction zone speed limit remains in effect.
Lastly, Goodfellow Brothers currently is paving the final layer of asphalt on the Parker Ranch Connector Road. However, the rainy Waimea has slowed progress on the latter. Nevertheless, the final roadway striping is scheduled for early next week. The county will inspect the roadway after these steps are completed.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:22 PM
Good post, but the Parker Ranch connector road excuse is BS, I live in Luala`i very close to the new road, less than 100 yards, and it has been as dry as a bone, my water bill has doubled, just to keep my yard slightly less than brown. Goodfellow’s equip sat untouched for 6 weeks, they did one week of work, and now it has sat again for 3 very dry days.
They need a better excuse.
Mahalo Aaron
July 27th, 2010 at 10:05 PM
Good update, Aaron, nicely researched. I agree about it being too soon for wear/tear, unless there is friction with the sea floor due to currents. Local bank should have it’s servers housed in a secure, redundant data warehouse somewhere outside Hawaii, somewhere with fewer power outages and these kind of freakish disasters, that seem to plague Hawaii almost on a monthly basis.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:10 PM
Nice research. Thanks for sharing. Aloha