Irma affects C&W operations

As the largest full service communications operator in the region, C&W reported impact on its service across the region including in the islands of Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. US-based employees in Florida were also affected by the storm.

“Clearly Irma was an historic event and we have suffered some damage to both fixed and mobile networks in our markets that bore the full force of the storm,” C&W CEO John Reid said in a statement.

“First and foremost, our initial assessment indicates that our people are fully accounted for in the affected countries. Our networks proved very resilient during the passage of the storm, and at times we were the only network operating in some of the impacted territories. I’m pleased to report that our mobile network in Antigua and Anguilla are back up to pre-Irma usage levels. There was, however, significant impact to our systems and services in Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“C&W’s attention is now wholly focused on rapidly restoring services to impacted customers across the region. Teams across the region are working around the clock to return services to normal. The company has also established a Restoration Hub in Antigua, where technicians from across the C&W Group – Jamaica, Barbados, and Panama – as well as its parent Company Liberty Global will be dedicated to getting islands back online. The company also extended free credit across affected markets, enabling prepay mobile customers to get in contact with loved ones on their island or abroad without worrying about charges. The free credits allow customers to use SMS, social media or make calls. For customers on contracted or post-pay services (e.g. home broadband, telephone and TV and post-pay mobile) C&W announced that it will not disconnect services in affected areas until further notice to ease the burden on our customers during this difficult time.”