Just before 10am on the 17th of April 2019 construction workers have cut through a fiber cable supplying Kennedy point their internet.
According to the constructions workers the fiber was not on their plan so are considering it an honest mistake.
It is now up to Chorus to go onsite to restore the connection to the area.
Update – Chorus have scheduled to have this service restored by Friday the 19th of April 5pm.
Update 7:30pm 19/04/2019
It looks like the damage is significant and Chorus have scheduled to repair the fibre this coming Tuesday the 23rd of April 2019
Update 11:30am 23/04/2019
Just spoke to onsite Chorus workers and they assured me that they will have the fiber connection repaired by 5pm tonight.
Just spoke to onsite Chorus workers and they assured me that they will have the fiber connection repaired by 5pm tonight.
I know that this has been a trying time for everyone affected and I thank you for your patience and understanding.
Construction workers damaging the fiber cable just before Easter, combined with the fact that we are on an island and Chorus was limited to what ferry sailings were available, all came together in the perfect storm to create a situation where we had an outage for 6 days.
Update 5:00pm 23/04/2019
Just went down to the repair site and chatted with the Chorus techs, they advised me that there is a blockage under the concrete pathway which has held up the repair. So unfortunately they are unable to complete the repair today and are going to have to get an excavator to clear the blockage. So at this stage the repair will at least be tomorrow and may even be another day after that.
Update 11am 24/04/2019
Just popped down to the repair site again, the reason fiber was not repaired yesterday as there was a blockage in part of the underground conduit. The good news is the Chorus workers have dug up that part of the conduit and found the blockage. If there are no other blockages in the conduit they will be able run a new length of fibre and connect everything back up today. They will work into the night splicing the fibre until the job is complete.
Update 3:00pm 24/04/2019
Chorus techs have found another portion of the fiber cable has been damaged by the construction workers. They are troubleshooting the issue but may have to replace another section which will delay the repair effort to Thursday or Friday.
Internet Restored at 8:50am on the 25th of April 2019
Thanks for your extreme patience and understanding during this outage. From what I could tell, Chorus did their best to get the internet connected as soon as possible but their efforts were foiled by holidays, ferry sailing and underestimating the amount of damage caused by the contractors that damaged the fibre.
The outage was just shy of 8 days. I already have a backup wifi link setup for redundancy to the mainland ensure that if something like this happens again FullTilt will be able to supply internet to most of our customers. This is scheduled to be activated in June or July.
I have had several people ask me about compensation, I have looked into it and you are not able to get any compensation from Chorus as they provide a best effort service.
It is my understanding that the contractors that caused this damage will be getting a huge bill from Chorus for the repairs.