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Bluesky cables in Samoa vandalized

The Police are investigating what appears to be a deliberate act to sabotage services provided by Bluesky Samoa Ltd. during the weekend.The communication company is appealing to members of the public to assist the Police with their investigation after several cables were cut at Lelata Bridge, causing major disruption to services on Saturday.In a statement issued yesterday, Tole’afoa Douglas Creevey, Chief Operating Officer of Bluesky, expressed his disappointment about the incident.“Bluesky Samoa is appealing on behalf of its Customers and the Police to any members of the public who may have seen any suspicious persons or activity on Lelata Bridge overnight Friday through to early Saturday morning,” he said.“We would like to apologise to all our Customers for the unplanned disruption on Saturday that was caused by this act of vandalism.”According to Tole’afoa, the vandalism was discovered on Saturday morning.“Early Saturday morning Bluesky technicians were called out to attend to a fault at a Taxi stand in Vaivase,” he said. “The checks and tests of the line at the premises exposed that all the lines were not working at the cabinet at Vaivase Tai. “They then back-traced the cable seeking a cause for the link disconnection. The team discovered that all the feeder cables were cut and disconnected at Lelata Bridge. “At about 10am all the Bluesky cable staff were called in for major repair works.” The Police were notified.“They were shown the damaged cables on location at Lelata Bridge. The police then started their investigation.”According to Toleafoa, there are several steel pipes crossing Lelata Bridge that Bluesky carry copper and optic fibre cables. “Some of the pipes had sustained physical deformation during the Cyclone Evan. However on Saturday a few of the pipes were found to have been physically separated at the weakened weld joints and major copper cables found to have been physically cut.“The main optic fibre was thankfully not broken but its steel pipe had to be repositioned first before fixing the damaged copper cables afterwards. “There were four cables cut and damaged; two 400-pair and two 200-pair cables, providing voice and broadband data services for all customers in Magiagi, Toomatagi, Vaivase Tai, Vaivase Uta and Fagalii Uta.”Public notifications were put out on all Radio Stations on Saturday. Temporary call-diversion and data services were extended to small businesses and Fagalii Airport.