In 2019, several breaches on the submarine cable both south and further north, caused the lifeblood of digital Greenland to be instantly cut. Once again there is a fault on the submarine cable, but this time it is a power failure on the cable, which impairs operational safety. That is why it is critically necessary that this fault is repaired as soon as possible.

Planned repair will affect all of South Greenland

This time around, however, it has been possible to plan the repair, which is why Tusass now announces that the submarine cable will be repaired this summer, and the repair will take place from mid-August and will affect the connections of costumers south of Nuuk. As announced previously, the repair takes place in the summer to ensure that the work, to the greatest extent possible, avoids drifting ice and large storms as well as hurricanes.

Chief Technical Officer of Tusass, Jonas Hasselriis, explainsThe duration of the repair is uncertain, because even though we plan everything carefully and start the repair in August, the repair takes place on a ship out in the middle of the sea. The repair will therefore depend a lot on wind, weather and ice conditions. Therefore, we now announce that the repair will start up in mid-August and may extend over a few weeks.

Tusass apologizes to customers

Unfortunately, it is inevitable that the submarine cable repair will affect the customers and the technical director emphasizes that

– It is very important for us to announce the time of the inevitable submarine cable repairs now, so South Greenland is alerted in as good a time as possible, as this affects everyone south of Nuuk. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience this causes our customers. We are doing everything we can to get the submarine cable repaired as soon as possible so that South Greenland can access the web again.

During the repair, critical services, such as KNR and citizens’ access to contacting authorities, will  have the highest priority.

Services and connections that will not be affected:

 Radio and TV

 Coastal radio, aircraft radio and Emergency 112

 Sheep farmers (Secluded Settlements) & other customers, e.g. mines with their own VSAT station outside the urban areas, are not affected

 Telephony and text messaging via SMS

Services and connections affected

During the repair, not only Tusass, but all providers of Internet and data services in South Greenland will have reduced capacity. However, it will be very different how this will affect the individual customers, and it is up to the individual internet service provider to distribute its capacity in the best possible way. Each provider’s share of capacity depends partly on how much their customers use on a daily basis and partly on the extent to which each provider chose to ensure its customers priority on the network.

In general, it is to be expected that business customers who pay for relatively expensive and secure connections on a daily basis will be affected the least, while private customers with a regular internet connection will experience major deterioration in their service while the submarine cable repair is ongoing. Most of the things you usually use your private internet connection for, such as streaming movies and series, will most likely not be possible.

Mobile data will also be affected. There will still be service, but the speed will be greatly reduced.

Settlements affected by submarine cable repair

Paamiut, Qaqortoq, Narsaq, Narsarsuaq and Nanortalik as well as all settlements from Nuuk and south will be affected by the submarine cable repair.

Tusass will be providing more information about this over the summer, but, as of now, the submarine cable repair has been announced as early as possible.