An AT&T repair ship mended a shredded undersea cable Wednesday afternoon near Isla Verde off the coast of Puerto Rico, restoring telecommunications services on St. Thomas that had been interrupted since early Monday.
The outage hit local long-distance carriers Sprint and Telefonica Larga Distancia of the Virgin Islands and Internet service provider VIAccess. According to Clayton Perry, sales supervisor in the territory for TLD, service came back up around 3 p.m. Wednesday.
"As far as I know, none of the carriers have had any problems since then," Perry said Thursday afternoon.
Courtney Wynter, general manager of AT&T of the Virgin Islands, said Wednesday that AT&T assisted in the repair effort because it has the greatest resources in the region.
It is still unknown exactly how the cable was damaged. Some have suggested that an unexpected storm surge on Sunday, when seas off Puerto Rico were running at least 12 feet high, may have contributed.
