The Telecommunications Company of Cuba S. A. (ETECSA) confirmed this Monday the that connects the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud with the national network, after more than six days of nearly total isolation.
The disruption began on September 8, when damage to the two undersea cables that support the territory's connectivity left the entire island without mobile phone service and limited landline service to strictly local calls.
The state-owned company attributed the recovery to "several days of joint efforts by our workers and those from other institutions."
The weather conditions significantly complicated the work: on September 12, although the specialists had already identified the exact location of the fault, bad weather prevented them from bringing the cable to the surface to make the fiber splice with the required precision.
During those days, Cuban families inside and outside the island reported the inability to communicate with their loved ones, while ETECSA did not provide an estimated date for restoration.
As a contingency measure, the company maintained an emergency satellite link to support only the transmission of state radio and television in the territory, without implying a full recovery of mobile or landline connectivity.
On Saturday, a day before the official announcement, ETECSA reported a gradual recovery of voice and data traffic, indicating that the connection had started to yield results.
The connection of the Isle of Youth - the only special municipality in Cuba - to the national network depends exclusively on submarine cables, in contrast to the other provinces, which are interconnected by land. This dependence makes it especially vulnerable to prolonged interruptions, since repairs require specialized vessels and favorable maritime conditions.
Despite the good news, the recovery of the infrastructure is not complete. ETECSA warned that the second damaged maritime link remains out of service and that its specialists "maintain constant monitoring of the behavior of the parameters associated with services in the territory."
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