[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Does a new cable have to get put in place?

[cll]

News are sketchy. Actually, this is the first solid news we've gotten since yesterday.

I am not in the know but I would think that if it is a fiber optic cable, it would have to be replaced.

Right now we seem to be down 80% in capacity. I have been able to log on only a few times today.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Nope. They pull them up and repair them.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Here's some info from a few years ago. Can you imagine fishing for a cable 9,400 meters underwater?

Alcatel breaks world record in deep-sea cable repairs - Undersea
Fiber Optics Weekly Update, June 27, 2003

Alcatel has successfully completed a fiber optic cable repair in water depths close to 9,400 meters -- breaking the world record for deep-sea cable repair operations. The Alcatel operated cable ship, C.S. Heimdal, completed the fiber optic cable repair approximately 700 km off the coast of Japan on a transpacific cable system connecting Japan to the U.S. continent. Because of the extreme water depths involved, Alcatel created a special grapnel to avoid the cable breaking under its own weight as the cable was raised from the seabed for repair. Based in Japan and fully mobilized with remotely operated vehicles, the C.S. Heimdal vessel enables Alcatel to help its customers respond to potential cable outages within 12 hours.

[ASOC]

Cable "burn thru" is one possible cause of the failure. Most long US undersea fiber cables are DC powered using the ocean as a return path for the DC power.

If the cable sheath is damaged the cable, in essence, shorts to the ocean. which can cause the copper conductor in the cable to burn away or dissolve - like electroplating in reverse, for lack of a better description.

They fish the cable up, splice on a new section of cable and run along till they find the next 'whole' section, another splice, and testing to confirm the repair.

Damage can be caused by fishing gear - the cable are normally found on charts - or by anchors, seismic events or chafing from tidal or current moving the cable across the seabed. More can be found here with links to photos.