Quintillion repairs are complete on ocean floor fiber optic cable

Quintillion announced Tuesday that the repair work on its submarine cable, cut by ice north of Oliktok Point, is complete and service to customers has been fully restored.

A 42-member repair crew aboard the vessel IT Integrity spent the last few weeks working on the repair and restoration of the Quintillion subsea fiber optic cable, severed by ice movement in mid-June.

Despite lingering ice coverage that precluded the ship reaching the cable for a month and then lack of visibility under water, strong winds, and rough waters slowing progress, the team ultimately endured and succeeded. 
 
“Quintillion is very grateful to the crew and leadership aboard the Integrity and proud of the many employees and contractors who have worked around the clock, since June, safely expediting the process to restore internet service to thousands of Alaskans,” said Quintillion President Michael “Mac” McHale.

“The past few months have undoubtedly been challenging for families, schools, and businesses affected by the outage. Restoring the service, and keeping our workers safe while doing so, has been the number one priority for all of us here at Quintillion. For the next week or two, our focus is now on adding resiliency and sustainability to the Quintillion network and we look forward to discussing this at a future time. We thank our customers and communities for their trust and confidence during this time period.” 
 
Quintillion is a private global communications corporation located in Anchorage that builds, m owns and operates subsea and terrestrial high-speed fiber optic network that spans the Alaskan Arctic and connects to the Lower 48. The planned three-phase Quintillion subsea cable system will ultimately connect Asia to the American Pacific Northwest, and to western Europe via the Northwest Passage and through the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic.