Digicel effects 'fragile' fix to reconnect most customers to network

Telecommunications firm Digicel says telephone and internet services have been restored to a large majority of its customers since the passage of Hurricane Melissa, but warned that the fix is “fragile”.

Service has been restored to 75 per cent of Digicel business customers and 89 per cent of home Internet customers, Chief Executive Officer of Digicel, Stephen Murad, disclosed on Wednesday.

The category five hurricane with winds of up to 180 miles per hour caused extensive damage to Digicel’s infrastructure, particularly across the southern end of the country, when it made landfall in Westmoreland on October 28.

The Digicel boss told a committee of Parliament that he was pleased with the progress the company has made since the passage of the hurricane, but stressed that “what we are doing today is interim”.

“This is not a rebuild, this is a fragile fix…until we have commercial power, until we have the pole infrastructure back, this is fragile,” he said during an address to the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee of Parliament.

As a result, Murad warned that Digicel customers “are gonna see breaks every single day”.

“And I know that’s not a great story for me to tell, but I much prefer to tell you the truth. That’s the reality,” he said.

“But we are pushing hard.”

- Livern Barrett

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