Bahamian Network Hit by Power Failures

Prepay customers of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) experienced problems with making calls on Tuesday as power failures affected the network for most of the day. Contract customers were not affected by the problems, so the power failure presumably was limited to the back-end account management systems which control network access permissions.

"The technical team has to make sure that the power failure is isolated and that power is restored quickly so that persons won't be inconvenienced," Marlon Johnson, Vice-president of Marketing Sales and Business Development at BTC told The Nassau Guardian. "About 90 percent of our customers are on GSM prepaid and we are cognizant that persons depend on the cell service for essential needs. So our first objective is to get back on stream and then look into the cause, to ensure that it does not happen again in the future."

The problems started in the early morning and were not fixed until nearly 3pm in the afternoon.

In a formal statement, BTC said, "The Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited wishes to advise the public that due to technical difficulties on our prepaid cellular platform, our prepaid customers may be experiencing difficulties making and receiving calls, as well as sending and receiving text messages. Our technical teams are working to ensure that this is rectified as soon as possible."

BTC is the sole operator in the country and according to figures from the Mobile World, is estimated to have ended last September with some 268,000 subscribers.

On the web: Mobile World - The Nassau Guardian

Posted to the site on 30th January 2008