TelEm Group technicians and engineers on Friday restored full service to three of the company’s four hurricane damaged cell sites restoring mobile service to hundreds of customers in the Oyster Pond, Dawn Beach, Middle Region and Philipsburg areas.
According to TelEm Group Corporate Communication Officer, Joe Dominique, only the cell site at Naked Boy Hill, continues to present some problems because of the extent of damage to equipment there.
"We have restored service to most areas of Guana Bay and Sucker Garden that are serviced by the Naked Boy Hill cell site, however there is still some work to be done which our technicians are attempting to complete over the weekend to restore serviced completely there," said Dominique.
He said most of the replacement equipment for the four cell sites that were ordered from overseas arrived as expected Wednesday and Thursday and noted that where parts are still awaited local workaround solutions were found to restore service for customers.
"We have had lightning damage our equipment on other occasions, but never as badly as this," continued Dominique. He said the company is now following up on discussions with electrical experts to install better protective systems to offer more protection in the event of future lightning storms.
Meantime the company says it has had to install a complete power system at one of the damaged cell sites, such was the extent of the damage caused during last Sunday’s lightning storm.