Latin American telecoms firm Cirion Technologies has begun repair work on a submarine cable off the coast of Venezuela.

The operations are being carried out by the cable-laying vessel Wave Sentinel. The vessel began work after completing preparatory tasks and traveling to the site of the break.

It comes after a double earthquake struck the country last month that reportedly reduced Venezuela’s Internet capacity by nearly 50 percent.

Although the company has not provided details on the causes of the failure or the estimated time to complete the repair, it has stated that the goal is to restore service as quickly as possible to minimize the impact on international communications.

Cirion noted that it used an underwater robot to the exact point of the cut and identified the two ends of the broken cable.

"Specialized teams are now working on cable integrity and connectivity testing. The results of those tests will determine the immediate steps of the repair," said Paul Choiseul, CTIO, Cirion Technologies.

Submarine cables carry huge amounts of international data traffic and form the foundation of digital connectivity between countries and continents. In Latin America and the Caribbean, this infrastructure is particularly critical, as it supports access to cloud services, digital platforms, Internet traffic, and business communications.

Repairing a submarine cable is a highly specialized operation that requires vessels equipped to locate the exact point of the fault, retrieve the cable from the seabed, replace the affected section, and reinstall it before conducting operational tests.

This type of repair can take several days, depending on factors such as weather conditions, the depth of the cable, or the complexity of the damage.

In recent years, operators and infrastructure providers have increased investments in new submarine systems and redundant fiber routes to reduce the risk of outages and improve the availability of international communications.

This piece was automatically translated from DCD's Spanish site and edited by a member of DCD staff.