What happens if the EASSy submarine cable is cut?
The EASSy consortium is making every effort to avoid such cable cuts by routing the cable to avoid danger areas (such as earthquake zones, areas of heavy shipping activity and abrasive sea beds), by burying the cable in trenches in shallow areas close to the shore and laying it deep in the sea bed in areas of major ship activity. However, even with the best planning, cable breaks can happen. In the case of a cable cut, customer traffic will be rerouted automatically to minimize the impact of any loss of data. If the cable is damaged in shallow water, a team of divers or a submersible will be used to make the repair. In deep waters, location of the fault is identified by testing to determine its distance from the nearest landing station. A cable repair ship is sent to the appropriate GPS coordinates and a specialised tool lowered to the sea bottom to find, cut and raise one end of the cable to the surface. Here, the damaged section is removed, the end of the cable waterproofed and it is
