From:TheBahamasWeekly.com

Grand Bahama
Copper thieves disrupt service for BTC’s Customers
By Bahamas Telecommunications Company
Dec 20, 2017 - 5:16:42 PM


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BTC teams were dispatched to the company's substation on East Atlantic Drive Wednesday after copper thieves caused significant damage to fiber connectivity which resulted in major service outages for commercial and residential customers in the surrounding areas. (Photo courtesy of BTC )

FREEPORT, Bahamas – Shortly after 8 am on December 20, officials at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company discovered what appeared to be evidence of copper theft at BTC substation on East Atlantic Drive. The actions of the culprits involved caused significant damage to the company’s fiber connectivity resulting in service outages for commercial and residential customers in the surrounding areas including the Rand Memorial Hospital, Grand Bahama Power, Paradise Games and up to 110 residential customers in nearby communities who will likely remain without fixed and broadband services for a minimum timeframe of three hours.

This is the latest in what has become spree of thefts which have occurred this year with the most recent taking place as recently as two weeks ago.

“In the gambier drive area, we had three spans of 600 lines stolen” explained BTC’s Senior Technical Manager Elvis Bartlett who noted further that such incidents often increase during the holiday season.

As it has in the past, the company is encouraging members of the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities which they may see to the relevant authorities to ensure that those responsible for the disruptions can be brought to justice.

Restoration teams were immediately dispatched to the area and working quickly to address the issues, however impacted customers can expect to experience some delays in the resumption of their services.

 “Not only do these kinds of incidents come at great financial cost to the company, they are also quite inconvenient for our customers and have widespread implications for the impacted entities” said VP of Customer Experience Eldri Ferguson-Mackey. “As a result of this we’re going to have some customers who are going to be out until tomorrow, and this is at the height of the holiday season, when children are home from school, there is no phone service and no internet and that obviously is not what we want for our customers”.

BTC apologizes for any, and all inconvenience caused by this service interruption and their teams are working diligently to restore services.



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