Manu’a Islands, AMERICAN SAMOA — Manu’a is still experiencing a partial outage with Broadband being the only service that is currently active with a stable connection, although speeds have been reduced using the VSAT (satellite) solution.

The American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority on Friday evening, July 2nd, 2021, issued a release acknowledging their team is working on a secondary solution to restore Landline, Mobile, and TV services in both Ta’u and Ofu.

The COW (Cell on Wheels), additional equipment, and supplies were shipped out via the M/V Manu’atele on Thursday morning. The teams have been working to assemble the dishes on the towers facing Ofu and Olotele in hopes of restoring services for the long weekend.

ASTCA has been able to identify the location of the Fiber break, which is 592ft away from Ta’u shoreline and right above the coral reef on the surf break zone. The break in Fiber cable is a result of abrasion due to wave energy that is exerted onto the cable most especially during rough weather that brings high wave activity. The cable is bare and rubbing against coral rock without any armor and harness.

Unfortunately at this time, ASTCA does not have an estimate on when the fiber will be repaired, as safety remains their top priority. Also, weather permitting ASTCA will be able to confirm whether a team will be sourced to assist in the repair.

The semi-autonomous government agency one again thanked the residents of Manu’a and the public for their continued patience during this time. “We will continue to update and inform the community once there are changes to the updates made available. We would also like to thank our partners at ASPA for their support,” the release stated.