Basslink says it has completed the first stage of repairs to its damaged Bass Strait cables by laying 1355 metres of new cable on the seabed.The cable has been suffering from a major fault since
December, resulting in not only energy but also fibre-optic services being
disrupted – and shut off completely after the twin cables were deliberately cut
in March to allow repairs to be made.
That work is continuing but will not be completed until sometime in June,
Basslink has said.
The cut has seen many Tasmanian businesses and citizens experiencing
significantly degraded Internet speeds. Telstra operates its own undersea
cables connecting Tasmania to the mainland, but has been for criticised for
hefty pricing to allow users such as TPG to switch to its cables.
Basslink’s current plan is to load a 90-tonne reel of high voltage cable onto
the repair vessel Ile de R?, which will return to the fault location, about
90km off the Tasmanian coast, to complete the final two joints and lay the
remaining cable – hopefully by mid-June.
