Severe damage to one of LIME’s fibre optic cables in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, has significantly impacted on that telecommunications company’s texting, faxing, BBM and internet facilities, while at the same time hampering the banking system of FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) country-wide.
The damage to LIME’s cable was caused by Provo Power Company (PPC) which was in the process of upgrading a major feeder on the Leeward Highway in Providenciales to improve the reliability of service and make their network more robust and efficient. A press statement issued on Monday February 28th said the utilities companies had consulted each other when the work commenced but the fibre was damaged during the course of the work.
“This damaged fibre has affected most of LIME’s data and voice services in the Turks & Caicos Islands. LIME’s technicians are working arduously to repair and restore all affected services,” the press release said. “LIME and PPC are working together for the quickest possible resolution to this unfortunate outage. Periodic updates will be disseminated via text messages and radio advisories throughout the day.”
Drexwell Seymour, LIME’s Chief Executive in the Turks and Caicos Islands, said he would like to apologize for any inconvenience which customers experienced as a result of the damaged cable. Meantime, FCIB posted notices in its branches notifying customers about the disruption. Customers could not access bank statements and ATM machines were down. Several businesses throughout Providenciales were unable to process credit card payments because of the technical snag.
