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by pltm
(PLTM) - With communication being one of the main issues since the passage of Hurricane Irma, at least two of the telecom providers BVI Platinum News was able to make contact with, are working to restore services as quickly as possible.
Flow, is hoping to have mobile services back up by next week. Head of Commercial for Flow BVI, Ravi Maywahlall spoke briefly with BVI Platinum News.
“If (Hurricane) Jose doesn’t impact us too heavily, and the airport opens on Monday, we will have the equipment here and engineers on the ground. So the objective is to by the end of next week, we start to restore mobile coverage throughout the island,” he said speaking from Flow’s Office in Road Town.
Maywahlall said that they currently have six cell sites that are operational.
“We are trying to maintain those sites at the moment because we have lost a lot of cell sites. So if you are in the Road Town, Belle Vue, East End, Carrot Bay and Chalwell (Estate) area, you will receive signal. The idea is that we are going to maintain that.”
He said, “We have briefed our Head Office; supplies as in replacement units, mobile, that is our priority right now, to restore mobile services.”
Maywahlall said that the infrastructure is severely damaged, but the core infrastructure remain intact.
"We do have an extensive team that will be coming to restore services for the BVI.”
In the meantime, Flow is offering free WiFi to residents.
“At the moment we have opened up our Wifi at the Flow store so that customers or anyone could just log on and communicate with their family members. We are trying to assist in the communities as best we can and we are just going to do what we have to do to restore normality to the BVI,” he stated.
Meanwhile, CEO of CCT, Averad Penn confirmed with BVI Platinum News that CCT network sustained severe damages during Hurricane Irma, including the destruction of many of our cellular towers.
He however noted that the CCT network is still functioning, despite having very limited local broadcast capabilities.
"Our engineers have already started to piece together equipment that survived the storm to rebuild our local broadcast capabilities."
He further disclosed, "Last night we were able to restore limited service to Sea Cows Bay and I have already received many calls from that area. More areas will come on stream as we are able to salvage additional equipment."
Penn said they have also reached out to their telecommunication vendors to solicit new equipment.
"CCT like the rest of the BVI will rebuild. Life, unlimited."
BVI Platinum News was not able to make contact with Digicel for a comment up to time of publication.
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