CEBU CITY – Telecommunication services in Cebu province remain to be very erratic five days after Typhoon Odette, leaving poor connectivity from existing cell sites.
Kenneth Cobonpue, chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 (Central Visayas), said a “big factor hindering full reactivation of telco services remains to be the lack of adequate power supply and fallen debris preventing the telco personnel from accessing certain cell sites.”
“It is hoped that as power supply resumes and more roads are cleared, this will enable the telco companies to expedite further the full resumption of mobile services in all areas of Cebu in the coming days or weeks,” Cobonpue told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a Viber message.
He said PLDT and Smart reported that as of 2 p.m. on December 21, only 49 percent of wireless 4G subscribers have been activated, while 69 percent of PLDT DSL connections are still down until now.
However, he said, progress has been achieved concerning Smart wireless 3G connections, with 63 percent now reactivated, while 77 percent of PLDT Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) connections are already available.
To help expedite the reactivation of their mobile services, Cobonpue said PLDT has flown in additional reinforcement teams and satellite equipment from Manila to provide additional support for some areas in Cebu with severely damaged equipment.
The RDC-7 chair said Globe Telecom is also providing free Wi-FI connections in select malls and government offices.
Power Update
Cobonpue said several areas in Cebu are slowly being reenergized with alternative power sources of power and supplied through the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
In northern Cebu, 10 areas have been energized by the Cebu Electric Cooperative II, while the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) has reenergized 64 out of 544 power line segments, providing power to 2,484 units in Cebu, of which 2,190 are residences and the rest are establishments.
The Project Balik Buhay, a private sector initiative organized in 2020 during the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, commended the Aboitiz Power for sending additional reinforcement teams from the Cotabato Light and Power Company on top of the reinforcement teams from the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. (Cepalco).
The reinforcement teams were deployed to help augment the already exhausted teams from VECO that have been working non-stop since Friday to expedite the repair and reconnection of the damaged electric posts.