The Tribune

BTC officials said yesterday that nearly 95 per cent of its telecommunications network had been restored in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

With the company’s Hurricane Command Centre still in operation, public relations senior manager Jerome Sawyer said the entire technical services team had been engaged to assess and repair all outstanding issues.

Most of BTC’s services, with the exception of Sandy Point, Abaco and parts of Grand Bahama have been restored. The vast majority of the remaining problems are related to ongoing commercial power outages and localised outages.

BTC said its services in New Providence were up and running by Monday morning and aside from some damaged cables and some dropped wires the network was solid.

The only two challenged areas were Sandy Point, Abaco and Grand Bahama, Mr Sawyer said.

“In Sandy Point flooding at the BTC office has made that system inoperable. Sandy Point and Moore’s Island have about 400 customers which represent about four per cent of Abaco’s total customer base. We are happy to report that the remainder of the island’s network is up and running, with only a few minor issues,” said Sawyer.

“In Grand Bahama, from initial assessments there was minimal damage done to BTC’s outside plants. Most of the outages experienced by customers were due to commercial power outages – which have affected the outdoor equipment. There are also some reports of dropped wires, which are resulting in some localised outages,” he said.

BTC reported full system restoration in the South East Islands; Bimini and the Berry Islands; Andros; Eleuthera; Exuma – with the exception of Williams Town, Farmers Cay and Musha Cay; Cat Island with the exception of the Cove and Gaitors and Long Island except Salt Pond – which was among the hardest hit islands.

Customers are advised that there are localised outages in some areas. There is also the potential for future outages over the next 3-5 days as some cables that were damaged in the storm may eventually malfunction due to erosion or stress. In cases where power outages persist, technicians will have to do another assessment once power is restored to check for further faults.

Antennas on several sites must also be realigned.

BTC said all of its ‘Top 100’ business clients and larger businesses were able to open on Monday morning with full service restoration, allowing for the full resumption of business operations in New Providence.

BTC technicians checked them individually to resolve any outstanding issues following the passage of the hurricane.

BTC’s CEO Geoff Houston commended staff for the work done over the past few days.

“Many of our employees left their families and the safety of their homes to baby-sit our sites throughout the storm. They kept watch, gave regular status reports and even carried out initial repairs – sometimes in the midst of the storm. We could not ask for a more dedicated team of professionals, especially in our Family Islands,” said Houston.

BTC also invested some $5 million dollars into upgrading its backup generator and battery fuel cell system around the country.

“What this did was allow our network to remain up during the storm. Many of our stations and outside plants were able to remain powered up for hours and hours – even when commercial power failed. That was a significant investment that paid off for us,” said Houston.

As assessment teams are still visiting the affected areas, BTC will continue to intensify its restoration efforts to try and complete all repairs as quickly as possible, it says. Customers experiencing any issues in service or wishing to report damage should contact the call centre at CALL BTC – 225-5282, or send an email or message via customer service@btcbahamas.com, facebook.com/mybtc or @BTCHelp on Twitter.