Temporary cell phone and internet connection has most Juneau residents back online after a damaged subsea cable caused a region-wide outage late last week.
A repair ship, called the Cable Innovator, is now on its way to fix the damaged cable and restore a permanent connection. But an Alaska Communication Systems spokesperson said it’s unclear how long that fix may take.
The outage began last week on Thursday evening. Southeast Alaska AT&T and ACS users began reporting limited to no service in areas including Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus.
Temporary service was restored for most users in Juneau on Saturday. But, according to an ACS spokesperson, the company was still trying to reconnect some areas as of Sunday.
The Juneau Police Department reported that its administrative phone system and non-emergency line were working again on Sunday. Its 911 emergency line appeared to function normally throughout the outage.
Juneau Deputy Manager Robert Barr said on Monday that the city’s phone lines are up and running again as well.
Last fall Sitka experienced a similar internet outage when a subsea fiber optic cable broke. It took more than two weeks before connection was restored. In late January, a subsea cable that runs from Prudhoe Bay to Nome also broke, causing a widespread outage in Northwest Alaska.
According to a vessel tracker, the ship that will fix the cable left British Columbia on Saturday and is now on its way to Sitka. It is expected to arrive there Tuesday. It’s unclear which part of the cable is damaged and how long it will take to fix the break.
