By Katalina Siasau

Alcatel's cable ship CS Lodbrog is set to arrive in Tonga on Tuesday, 6 August, after a delay in Fiji for over a week, due to an issue with its right hand propeller.

Meanwhile, telephone and internet services to Vava'u and Ha'apai continue to feel the impact of the Tonga domestic submarine cable blackout that has lasted over a month, since it was cut after an earthquake on 29 June.

Tonga Cable CEO, Semisi Panuve, told Matangi Tonga that CS Lodbrog, which came from Singapore, had to remain in Fiji while a component, the bearing of the right hand propeller of the ship, was being shipped in.  The part arrived in Fiji on Tuesday, 30 July.

He said the ship would now depart Fiji on Sunday, 4 August, and was expected to arrive in Tonga on Tuesday, 6 August, when it would go straight to the cable sites.

Initially the repair was expected to be completed in July.

A new repair timeline is set for mid-August.

"The repair has been set to be complete on 15 August. However, it will depend on the work, on how they can easily find the damaged cable, and also, they have yet to determine how big the damages are," said Semisi.

The repair timeline will take longer if the damaged cables is found to be more than 50 kilometers. 

"We have a spare cable for repair, but if the damage is more than 50 kilometres, we must postpone the repair until we have sufficient spare cable,” Tonga Cable ACEO Sosafate Kolo said on 5 July.

The two faults on the cable are located at 73 km and 96 km from Tongatapu. Tonga Cable Ltd. believed the cable was suppressed at 73 km from Tongatapu, while at 96 km, the cable was completely cut.