Finally, SEACOM has posted new (well, another) report regarding the undersea outage off Mombasa, which, though initially projected to be completed by 11 July will most probably only be finished by 22 July 2010 according to latest reports.

Finally, though, they have announced that the “designated ship has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will proceed to locate the cable on the seabed.” They say that this action will have to take place in and around the area the cabled was dropped by the installation ship over a year ago due to tidal movements that may have relocated the cable on the sea bed. “This is normal and caused by the natural sea bed movements and strong submarine currents in that area.”

So the current status is that the ship has been sent out. Give-aways of no further actual progress than this are in the phrasing: “Once located with the help of cable station staff and specialised equipment …” So there is some work ahead, yet. Once found, they’re going to pull the cable aship (well, if there’s ashore, there must be aship), the cable will be cut, inspected, spliced and fixed. Then comes testing. During this process, the cables will be powered down in segments to identify the area of concern.

As per normal, the typical “exogenous factors including location, water depth, currents  and weather” have been cited to provide a fall-back position regarding the time line…

At least there’s progress… When it’s up, it’s great!! 🙂

This story is a follow-up to the postings previously made about the SEACOM down time, the ship and repair process.