Unlike other weather systems affecting Barbados in recent times, Hurricane Elsa was a major test of the island’s telecommunications infrastructure.
This was expressed by FLOW’s Senior Manager, Communications, South Caribbean, Marilyn Sealy, during a press conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, to discuss matters relating to the aftermath of Hurricane Elsa, which seriously affected the island on Friday, July 2.
According to Sealy, though FLOW was still able to keep the majority of its services intact over the course of the hurricane, significant parts of its coverage were still impacted.
“This Hurricane Elsa was a major test for our telecoms infrastructure; I am happy to say that we were able to keep our infrastructure sustained and keep our network up throughout the course of Hurricane Elsa. As you can imagine, a lot of our customers would have turned to their mobile phones to touch base with their families and their friends, and as a result we saw a significant spike in mobile traffic.”
“Our fixed network is stable, however 39 cell sites are off air, mainly across St George, St Philip and the lower Bridgetown area, largely due to power outages,” she said.
Sealy added that generators were currently in use at some of the sites.
Damage assessment teams are still touring several areas around the country in order to outline the best way to restore service to all customers as soon as possible, she said.
Digicel’s Romel Sargeant said that the telecommunications company was still facing some challenges in the aftermath of the hurricane.
“We have a total of 98 sites, and out of those 98 sites we have 20 currently offline. The parishes that are impacted are; Christ Church, St Andrew, St George, St James, St John, St Joseph, St Lucy, St Michael, St Peter, St Philip and St Thomas.
“We also have in our Home Entertainment areas, majority of them are off due to power, but if you have power in the area and service is still offline, I would ask you to contact us via WhatsApp, at 826-5372, if you have reported areas still offline despite having power.” (SB)
