The Tribune

BY FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

PROLONGED Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) outages across several southern islands disrupted economic activity over the weekend, with residents stressing they were unable to work online, operate digital businesses or access services while still paying for data and connectivity.

BTC said yesterday that services had been restored in Acklins, Crooked Island, Rum Cay, Inagua and Mayaguana after technical teams worked to reconnect customers affected by interruptions to mobile, fixed, television and internet services.

The company had previously warned customers in those islands that they could be experiencing service interruptions and apologised for the inconvenience. A Mayaguana resident said the impact of the outages went well beyond inconvenience, particularly for residents who depend on Internet connectivity for work and commerce.

“It impacts everything. It impacts work a lot because a lot of stuff is on the computer. When the service is down, it is like your whole life stops,” she said. “A lot of residents have digital products and digital stores, and when the service is down, they can’t even do that.”

The resident said the loss of mobile service also raised concerns about emergency communications, recalling a fishing accident over the weekend when there was no service available to make a call. “There was a fishing accident over the weekend and there was no service to call in,” she said.

The connectivity problems have also affected travel arrangements, with the resident recalling that two weeks earlier, while flying out of Mayaguana, the airport could not print tickets because the ticketing area did not have Internet service.

“The Airport Authority was the only part of the airport that had Starlink, so the ticket desk didn’t have the Internet service it needed,” she said. The resident added that the outages were also affecting people trying to conduct ordinary transactions and maintain communication with businesses and service providers.

“I had an Airbnb service that was down and I couldn’t communicate with the host. It affects everything when you have no Internet or phone service,” she said.

The latest disruption followed another widespread outage in the southern Bahamas, with the resident recalling that the islands had been without service for more than 24 hours in July. She said the latest outage began on Friday, with service returning around 10am on Saturday before dropping again around 5pm and returning around 2pm Sunday.

She was in Cat Island over the Emancipation Day holiday and said the same problem occurred there. “There was no service or it was poor service,” the resident said.

The outages have also raised concerns about the value customers receive for mobile data and connectivity during periods when the network is unavailable.

“BTC has to recognise that they are impeding things in this country. They don’t even take into consideration the data plans being used when they are not providing a service,” the resident said. “People aren’t getting the service they paid for and there is nothing coming back.”

BTC said in its Monday update: “We’re pleased to advise that services have been restored in Acklins, Crooked Island, Rum Cay, Inagua and Mayaguana.” The company thanked customers for their patience and understanding while its teams worked to restore connectivity.