ARCOS Caribbean Network Suffers Two Fiber Cuts

The Americas Region Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS) suffered two separate undersea fiber cuts within days of each other, affecting services to seven Latin American countries. New World Network, the principal owner of ARCOS, said services to Belize, Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia have already been restored. Emergency repair crews continue working around-the-clock to fully restore services over the ARCOS network to Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. National and inter-regional communications were unaffected.



"This is the first time in our company's history that we have experienced nearly simultaneous cuts on the same ring," said Fred Wiener, president and CEO of New World Network. "Our system is designed for automatic protection and restoration against a single cut, and the system performed perfectly following the initial fiber fault."



The first of the two unrelated cable cuts occurred Nov. 11 in an undersea fiber cable between Cancun, Mexico, and Miami, Florida, in the United States. The cut occurred in relatively shallow waters about 12 km east of Cancun. http://www.nwncable.com