Heavy equipment damage LIME's sunken telephone lines at Runway Ghaut
by B. Roach
The Ministry of Communications and Works, Public Works Department have been accused as the culprits for disrupting telephone, internet and broadband services to the southern end of the island as Wednesday morning. The damage is the result the drainage works which is continuing and which began just north of Rams Supermarket.
Work continues - cut lines right of the shovel
The disruption caused LIME’s Country Manager, Joseph Cassell to say that there will be “No service at all for these people,” those south of Runway Ghaut.
A ZJB news report voiced Cassell, saying “…the excavation work that was being done in relation to the road works on the Salem to North main road, they have actually impacted our network very severely,” adding that, “in fact the cable was cut…”
A PWD official confirmed that the works being carried out in the general area, in this case at Runway Ghaut yards from a LIME (Cable & Wireless) station, is part of the current Roads project that will run from Salem in the south to St. John’s in the north.
Cassell cautioned that the disruption of telephone services will put strain on the mobile site and cell phones users throughout the island may experience periodic problems. He said In relation to this extra pressure now on the mobile site that serves the (Old Towne) Salem and Olveston areas is that customers may in fact find that they may get congestion… roughly 20%more people will be using the mobile service because there is no fixed line service.”
He said that on Wednesday they already had been in contact with some of the major businesses in this area, “that we will have to try to find some alternative way of sending calls from their fixed line service to their mobile phones, so that at least their voice communications can be taken care of.” Highlighting the bad news, “people who are dependent on broadband internet service will not be able to avail themselves until the fixed line service is restored.”
The manager said they hoped to restore services by today, Friday, as they work hard to repair damage sustained to the cable infrastructure in the Runaway Ghaut area.
