Digicel pushes for full restoration by year end

At least 75 per cent of Digicel customers in four of the parishes with significant impacts from Hurricane Melissa will have service restored to them within the next two weeks, according to the local telecoms giant.

Senior officials from the company, who appeared before the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, also pledged to restore full service to the parishes of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover and St James by the end of the year.

The company reported that following the passage of the Category 5 storm on October 28, thirty per cent of its customers across the island were still accessing its service. However, 14 days later, service has been restored to 60 per cent of its customers.

Chief technical and innovation officer at Digicel, Bjorn Reynolds, told members of the parliamentary committee that 37 of the company’s sites, erected on rooftops, had been destroyed by the ferocious storm. Eight are to be restored in 14 days.