Internet, Credit Cards & ATMs Cut Off For The US Commonwealth Northern Marianas Islands
CNMI disconnected: Cut cable shuts down phones, banking
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Guampdn.com
July 9, 2015
Lone undersea cable linking CNMI to rest of the world snaps, exposing vulnerability
A break in an undersea cable has disconnected the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands phone, Internet, banking and other communications with Guam and the rest of the world.
The outage also means credit-card purchases, withdrawing money from ATMs, teleconferencing for health care, and all other communications that go through the CNMI’s only fiber-optic cable connection to the outside world have gone dark, telecommunication company IT&E confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
Until a backup system is in place, the only way to call Saipan is through a few satellite phones, including one at IT&E’s Saipan office and at certain government agencies, the company confirmed.
“In Saipan, there is no connectivity at all,” said James Oehlerking, chief executive officer of Pacific Telecom Inc.
PTI is the parent of IT&E, which invested $14 million in 1997 to lay an undersea fiber-optic cable that links the CNMI and Guam, and from Guam to an undersea cable across the Pacific.
The magnitude of the outage to Saipan’s tourism-based economy is unknown. It’s unclear how residents and tourists are able to continue to pay for food or other purchases at stores without access to card transactions and cash from ATMs.
In Guam, the disruption is limited primarily to customers of IT&E who get text messaging, voice phone and data service on all second-generation and on some third-generation phones, according to the company.
‘All communications’
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