Vetern TelEm Group splicing teams went into action on the A.T. Illidge Road Friday to restore telecommunication lines to the area after a company distribution cabinet was vandalized.
The cabinet was burned to the ground by an unknown person or persons late Thursday night, leaving more than 400 residents in and around the area of Oduber Agencies, without use of a landline telephone and/or internet connections.
Personnel of TelEm Group’s Outside Plant mounted a massive operation Friday morning to restore the service as quickly as possible.
The contingency plan involved calling in retired workers and contractors to assist in a delicate splicing operation to reconnect all numbers in the area one at a time.
At 4:30pm yesterday, supervisors of the Outside Plant reported much work had been completed and the operation to start connecting the lines would take place within the hour.
The technicians expected to work throughout the night to complete the bulk of the connections and complete the reconnection task over the weekend.
Manager, Outside Plant, Mr. Anthony Carty said once the damaged cable and cabinet was removed, the splicing teams were able to take up their positions and do their magic.
"They have been at it all day in two work shifts and they plan to go on until the job is completed," said Mr. Carty.
Meantime TelEm Group reported other interruptions on its telecommunication network Friday.
Early Friday the company’s GPRS mobile service was affected by equipment failure at the company’s sub-location in Belvedere. Technicians and staff from the power department were called in to identify and rectify the problem and service was resumed shortly afterwards.
Also Friday, TelEm Group received a report that its microwave link to St. Eustatius was affected following maintenance of company equipment the previous evening.
Technicians from associate company, Smitcoms N.V. were busy tackling this problem until early Friday afternoon.
TelEm Group has acted quickly to rectify these problems and restore service in all areas affected Friday.
"The incidents were all separate and are not connected in any way. In all cases electronic parts that can go at any time are involved, unfortunately several things happened at the same time causing a big stretch on manpower," said Corporate Communication Officer Joe Dominique.
He said TelEm Group’s Security Officer is also investigating the A.T. Illidge Road fire and looking at other ways of safeguarding other distribution cabinets from acts of vandalism.
