Image: Connected Globe, Bigstock.
TSTT was the first to advise that a damaged fibre optic cable in Miami was the cause of slow browing speed for its customers.
Flow posted a notice by mid-afternoon that it was “working to resolve the issue currently affecting broadband customers.”
Novo Communications, a subsidiary of the CCN Group advised that the disruption was “due to Sub-Sea Fiber Optic damage between Miami and Trinidad.”
Most Internet providers in Trinidad source their pool of broadband from multiple sources, so there has not been a total shutdown of service, but speeds have offered a new generation of digital natives a taste of life on dial-up quality connections.
Repairs were initially estimated to last around 12 hours, but the disruption has run longer than that and if connectivity is sub-sea, that estimate is likely to have been hopeful.
Some resources which have been cached locally at the TT Internet Exchange (TTIX), are more responsive, as are connections to websites hosted locally.
The TTIX, which monitors aggregate broadband performance has registered a drop from a total of 2.5 gigabit per second speeds to a low of .5 GBps. For most of the day and evening, aggregate performance has run closer to 1.5 GBps, reflecting a real world loss of around 1 GBps collectively as a result of the cable disruption.
Depending on the reliance of individual providers on that, as yet unnamed source of broadband connectivity, the performance of user connections will vary. I’m seeing much faster speeds on TSTT’s mobile broadband than on Flow’s wired connection.
[Service appears to have been restored just before midnight on July 20, 2018]
