A broken cable can sometimes have some pretty far ranging implications -- at least, when it's the main fiber optic cable providing almost all communication services to an island home to more than 50,000 people.

That's the situation that the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (or CNMI), a US territory north of Guam, has been facing for the past couple of days, after its main undersea link was damaged on Wednesday. As the Pacific Daily News reports, that's not only meant a disruption in internet and phone service, but a halt to credit card transactions, ATM withdrawals, and even flights from the island to and from Guam (although some of those have since been restored with the help of United).

A microwave system, which the island relied on before the undersea cable was put in place in 1997, has reportedly been brought back online to restore some services in the interim, but it is apparently suffering some problems of its own after being damaged in a storm. 

As of now, it isn't clear when the cable will be able to be repaired and restore full service to the island, with stormy weather conditions again reportedly impeding initial efforts. In its most recent update posted today, IT&E, the company responsible for the cable, said only that "additional bandwidth is expected within 48 hours allowing for improved phone service and data network capacity," but notes that a number of services currently remain limited.

[via Ars Technica]