The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Thursday asked telecom companies to immediately repair and restore services disrupted during the onslaught of Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon.
The NTC issued a memorandum directing all telcos to ensure that there are sufficient number of technical and support personnel, standby generators, tools and spare equipment in the areas affected by the monsoons rain and fast track the repair and restoration of telecommunications services in those areas.
It said telcos reported that there were mobile and broadband service disruptions in some areas affected by the typhoon primarily due to power outages.
Flooding in many areas made restoration activities more challenging as some roads were impassable.
“Nonetheless, round-the-clock restoration efforts are continuously being undertaken by the PTEs, including deployment of power generator sets until such time that commercial power is re-established, which will then hopefully restore regular telecommunications services within 24 to 48 hours,” the NTC said.
Globe Telecom said it started restoration work in a few areas in Metro Manila and Northern Luzon affected by service disruptions due to commercial power failure.
It said that as of 9 a.m. Thursday, over 90 percent of Globe’s mobile sites in Metro Manila were up and running, with few facilities down due to power outages. None of the 3G sites were affected.
Globe said that in Northern Luzon, more than 95 percent of 2G, 3G, LTE and 5G sites were operational.
“As the weather has improved and floods have subsided, our personnel are now working on quickly restoring services in the few isolated areas that experienced disruptions in their call, text and data services,” said Globe chief sustainability and corporate communications officer Yoly Crisanto.
Globe did not report any damage to its network infrastructure.
“Overall, our network remains intact and stable, providing communications services critical to relief and recovery operations in typhoon-hit areas. It is proof that our network resilience efforts work,” Crisanto said.
