Go has fully restored the internet bandwidth service via its second submarine fibre-optic cable linking St Paul's Bay and Mazara Del Vallo in Sicily, the company said yesterday.

It was originally planned that the second cable, which is linked to the pan-European network of Interoute, would start operating by the beginning of January. However, a spokesman for Go said that, given the circumstances that developed over the past few days - after a ship's anchor damaged a submarine cable causing widespread problems to communication services, extending as far as the Middle East and South Asia - the objective was to put live IP traffic on the new system in order to considerably improve Go's bandwidth capabilities.

Work on the company's second cable has been expedited so as to considerably improve the broadband service that was available following a fault that developed in the Go-Telecom Italia cable last week.

The cable-laying works on Go's second cable started on November 26 at St Paul's Bay. In the meantime, the company has maintained the bandwidth offered via Vodafone's cable and will continue monitoring the situation in the next hours and days, the spokesman said.

Go chief executive officer David Kay thanked Vodafone for its collaboration in implementing the contingency agreement between the two companies following the fault. The same ship that laid Go's second cable is in the process of starting repairs on the damaged cable, together with other cables that have been severed in the Mediterranean area.