Telecom accidently cut cable causing temporary shut-down of government network
The government network was disrupted temporarily earlier this week affecting the main Public Service building at Fonuakula and the Niue Bulk Fuel at the Airport.
Telecom Niue Board Chairman Avi Rubin confirmed that an incident involving one of their “diggers being operated by the CEO accidently cut the fibre cable at 3.15pm on Monday causing the disruption to the government network.”
According to the statement, the “CEO operating a digger for the purposes of installing a pole for construction works”. The accident did not affect the 4G network as some people had suggested.
The disruption also affected the government financial management system, Greentree. On Tuesday afternoon the Financial Secretary sent an email to the whole of government saying that the Treasury’s Greentree system had been down since Monday afternoon due to a cable fault and Treasury staff would not be able to issue any purchase orders. The system was restored on Tuesday afternoon.
According to Telecom, services were fully restored by 10:30am Tuesday morning.
In response to questions of what measures are in place with Telecom Niue to ensure these accidents don’t happen again, Avi Rubin says that these incidents will be mitigated in future by the installation of the 2nd fibre which is currently being rolled out in conjunction with Power and Water Departments.
