Telephone service to the remaining customers in the industrial district not affected by a drilling mishap Wednesday were shut down manually yesterday by BTC crews to effect repairs.
But service to the 1,000 customers in the area was expected to be back up at the start of the business day today.
The problem was so grave that it meant hiring an independent company, Waugh Construction, to perform the escavation some six feet below the ground before BTC crews could get to the underground cable.
Initial estimates for the work – which entailed the repair of 200 feet of cable, the escavation cost, labour and material – is costing the telecommunications company some $10,000.
Businesses in the area began noticing a disruption in the telephone and internet services around 11:00 a.m. Wednesday and phoned into the BTC maintenance number.
As the calls became incessant and it was realized the complaints were coming from the same area, Bahamas Telecommuni-cations Company Acting Vice President Henry Romer revealed that a team was dispatched to investigate the nature of the complaints.
“It was at that point that we discovered that in the Queens Highway area a lot of businesses were having disruptions with their service,” he said.
Investigations revealed that one of the 1,800 pair feeder cables had been severed by workmen drilling for a private company in the area of Kelly’s True Value.
While the damage caused by the drilling was extensive and affected a large customer base in the area, BTC says some 20 percent of its customers still had service.
The disruption, however, was confined to local telephone service.
Those businesses affected were situated on Queens Highway, Thackeray Street, Byron, Logwood, Lignum Vitae, Mango and Lindbergh Roads, the Bonded area, Shelly, Milton, Keaton, Wimpole, Cedar and Yellow Pine Streets, West Settler’s Way, Grenville Drive, Maple Close, Forest Avenue, Madeira Croft, Bellevue Lane.
The problem was discovered at the junction of Yellow Pine Street and West Settler’s Way where the private work crews were drilling holes for tree planting.
BTC was challenged, Mr. Romer noted, as finding a crew to perform the escavation in order to reach the damaged underground cable proved difficult.
He explained that the damaged cable had to be replaced first before service is restored to those affected customers.
BTC Technical Manager Michael Laing confirmed that it was the first time such an incident had occured in the area while noting that protocol was that a company would contact the utility companies before any drilling takes place for safety reasons.
“We would be able to locate wherever cable facilities were (there) before they go ahead and drill, but that didn’t happen in this case,” Mr. Laing said.
As the damage has caused a major interruption in phone service to those 800 businesses for two days, Mr. Romer says BTC has taken the necessary steps to restore service in the shortest possible time.
“We’re anticipating that around midnight we should be completed the work,” he revealed.
Service to the remaining 20 percent of its business customers in the area was interrupted at 5:30 p.m. and work teams moved in and tarried the rest of the night, as the job was expected to take some six hours.
“We will do whatever is necessary to have this resolved tonight,” Mr. Romer assured.
He noted that it is the company’s hope to have all of the service restored so that when the business community returns to work today it would be business as usual.
BTC has identified the company responsible for the drilling and says the cost of the repair will be passed on to them.
“It is our policy and our standard practice to pass it on and we do go to extreme lengths to ensure that we get satisfaction one way or another,” Mr. Romer ensured.
By LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior FN Reporter
