Cirion Technologies made great strides in the Venezuela undersea cable recovery, restoring international connectivity less than one month after the June 24 earthquake. The Venezuela undersea cable recovery operation restored connections for hospitals, businesses and families across the country in 29 days. Moreover, the recovery of the Venezuela undersea cable was an example of what can be accomplished with coordinated engineering, international expertise and government cooperation in restoring vital telecommunications infrastructure under challenging conditions.
Tomorrow will be one month since the earthquake of June 24 shook the lives of millions of Venezuelans. Today, after only 29 days, essential communications services have been restored throughout the country thanks to one of the most complex submarine infrastructure recovery projects ever carried out in Latin America.
For the last 20 years, Cirion Technologies submarine cable has had over 99.999% uptime, the highest standard of reliability in the telecommunications industry. At the time of the earthquake, the cable was fully compliant with its original engineering specifications.
Industry statistics show that submarine cable failures are rarely due to geological events. According to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), about 86% of the worldwide submarine cable breaks are caused due to fishing activities and ship anchors. Meanwhile, earthquakes and submarine landslides are responsible for only 7% to 14% of reported incidents.
However, an earthquake on June 24 moved the seabed near Venezuela, impacting the submarine cable entering the country. Therefore, the restoration of international connectivity called for a comprehensive engineering response with the support of local and international specialists.
Coordinated response speeds up restoration process
This was far more than just a routine infrastructure repair effort. But Cirion instead coordinated a massive effort to deploy engineering teams, network specialists, government agencies and global technical partners to restore connectivity as quickly as possible.
In less than 48 hours, Cirion’s local teams, supported by international partners, restored the connectivity ring of Caracas. That meant hospitals, banks and food distribution services were back on line and communicating within hours. Moreover, alternative international routes permitted over 60% of customers to continue operations from the early stages of contingency.
Cirion is part of ACMA, the international co-operative that maintains and repairs submarine cables, and was instrumental in the operation. Globally, there are less than 50 specialized cable repair vessels serving submarine infrastructure. Immediate availability of a vessel is often a major challenge.
This membership gave Cirion priority access to the Wave Sentinel, which allowed the vessel to arrive in Venezuela in record time. The operation required 15 government authorizations that take more than 45 days to be granted on average. But close collaboration with CONATEL and the Venezuelan authorities reduced the approval process to a mere 14 days.
Consequently, the whole recovery operation was completed by Cirion in 29 days, considerably faster than similar projects elsewhere, which can take five weeks or several months to complete.
Successful recovery thanks to teamwork and robust infrastructure
Cirion thanked CONATEL and Venezuelan authorities for their ongoing support and cooperation in the emergency response. Working with Cirion’s technical specialists and the Wave Sentinel crew kept the project on schedule and met tight operational and engineering standards.
Every technical milestone was supported by dedicated engineers, network operations center specialists, field operators, the Wave Sentinel crew and Cirion employees throughout Venezuela and the broader Latin American region. Because of their dedication, vital communications were restored despite the extraordinary challenges of the earthquake.
Cirion Technologies continues to operate one of the largest digital infrastructure platforms in Latin America, with more than 105,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable, 18 landing stations and six international submarine cable systems connecting 17 countries.
This regional infrastructure combines the network inherited from Level 3, now Lumen (AS3356), one of the leading Tier-1 backbone networks in the world. This allows Cirion to deliver resilient connectivity by linking thousands of Autonomous Systems, cloud providers, international carriers and digital content platforms across the region.
The successful recovery reaffirms Cirion’s commitment to enhancing secure, resilient and highly available digital infrastructure across Latin America, while ensuring dependable connectivity in future emergencies.
“ We are especially proud of our extraordinary Venezuelan team, whose dedication and resilience represent the very best of Cirion. Despite facing personal losses, hardship, and moments of profound grief, they never wavered in their commitment to restoring essential communications for millions of people. Their courage, professionalism, and sense of duty were truly heroic and will never be forgotten .” Paul Choiseul – Senior Vice President & Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO)
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News Source: Press.CirionTechnologies.com
