AmbergrisCaye.com Home
Posted By: Marty Smart says service restored in southern areas - 05/24/12 02:51 PM

Ian Courtenay

While the new service will be convenient, Smart customers in the south experienced difficulties connecting on Saturday and this past Tuesday. According to PR Officer, Ian Courtenay, damaged fiber lines caused long breaks in service in several southern communities. But he told News Five today, that the damage has been repaired and precautionary measures are being put in place.

Ian Courtenay, Public Relations Officer, Smart Belize

"On Saturday we had an outage for several hours and then on Tuesday, I believe around midday we had another outage that affected from Pomona, Dangriga, Placencia, Independence, Seine Bight and some of the Punta Gorda area. What has happened on both occasions, our fiber lines going down the Coastal Road were damaged by trucks working in the area. Some poles were replaced by B.E.L. yesterday, which was the reason why it took so long for us to repair the damage and to try and correct the situation. What has happened is that there was a road crossing where the span from pole to pole was really far and so the cable hung too low. So B.E.L. planted new poles to correct that situation and at the same time, Smart is looking at the different options for us to secure the fiber line in that area to ensure that this doesn't happen again because I know it is a very big inconvenience for our customers and we certainly apologize for it and we are taking the steps necessary to ensure that we not only protect the fiber lines, but also to put in backup systems so that we're not totally reliant on the fiber in the case of damage to the line."

Delahnie Bain

"And as of when has the service been fully back in�"

Ian Courtenay

"Around nine-thirty this morning the service was fully restored to all the sites that were affected and hopefully, with the changes that were made by B.E.L., we won’t have the problem with these trucks that are working in the area right now."

Channel 5

© Ambergris Caye Belize Message Board