GO has fully restored Internet bandwidth connectivity via its new, second submarine fibre-optic cable between St Paul’s Bay and Mazara Del Vallo in Sicily and which is linked to the pan-European network of Interoute. As a result, GO has activated a total IP bandwidth throughout of 2.5GB.

The company has maintained the bandwidth offered via Vodafone’s cable and will be continue monitoring the situation in the next hours and days.

The company said that thanks to GO’s engineers and staff, work on the company’s second cable has been expedited so as to considerably improve the broadband service which was available following the fault which developed in the GO-Telecom Italia cable last Thursday.

The original plan was to have GO’s new cable up and running by beginning of January 2009. However, given the circumstances which developed over the past few days, the main objective was to put live IP traffic on the new system in order to considerably improve GO’s bandwidth capabilities. The cable-laying works on GO’s second cable started on the 26th of November at St Paul’s Bay.

GO Chief Executive Officer David Kay said: “I thank our employees for their dedication and our customers for their support during this difficult period. We have managed to activate our second submarine cable link in record time in order to give all our customers the level of service they expect.”

Mr Kay thanked also Vodafone for the company’s collaboration in implementing the contingency agreement in place between the two companies following Friday’s fault.

Speaking about the rectification of the GO-Telecom Italia cable, Mr Kay said that the same ship which laid GO’s second cable, Elettra’s Teliri, is in the process of starting the repair of the cable, together with other cables that have been severed in the Mediterranean area.

Mr Kay reiterated the company’s apologises for any inconveniences caused due to this unfortunate incident.