Problems with telecommunications in the Western and Northern divisions yesterday have been blamed on trenching work being done by a road contractor.

Vodafone and Telecom disruptions resulted from a fiber break caused by Higgins, whilst doing trenching works near Wairebetia, Lautoka.

Vodafone acting Chief Executive Officer, Ronald Prasad said: “Vodafone is dependent on other vendors for provision of some of its backhaul fiber transmission.

Although traffic was re-routed on our diversity links, this resulted in degradation due to capacity issues on microwave.

“Such incidents, although circumstantial, does lead to frustration and disruptions, especially for customers that rely on connectivity for their business operations.

Engineers were deployed to the scene and services were restored just after midday.”

Vodafone is working closely with Telecom to complete the fiber ring, a project that has just been approved as a major capex item for this financial year, Mr Prasad said.

Once completed, this will provide much better diversity and a self-healing loop for automatic re-routing of traffic.

Mr Prasad said: “Although circumstances were beyond Vodafone’s control, Vodafone regretted any inconvenience caused and sincerely apologized for the service disruption”.

He thanked customers for their understanding and patience.

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