POND ISLAND:--- TelEm Group technicians and engineers have fully restored operation of the company's international voice and data switch following a fire incident Monday.
At 3:00pm Tuesday, all internet, landline and international calling was restored to customers along with E1 and other data communication links.
TelEm Group management has praised it dedicated team of technicians for working around the clock to first identify the cause of the incident and then to find temporary solutions to get the international switch back online until a more permanent fix can be put in place.
"The technicians have worked more than 20 hours straight with only one short break to solve this problem and I am personally very grateful to them for their dedication," said TelEm Group Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Mr. Eldert Louisa.
"For now we are monitoring the switch for network stability and would like to hear from any customers who are still experiencing any problems with their international, landline, internet or data connections," said Mr. Louisa, who indicated that members of the public should call the Helpdesk at 611 to up 9:00 pm to report their problem.
He said technicians raised the alarm Monday when fire safety equipment was deployed to contain what the system detected as a fire in the building's main server room.
"The fire retardant system is designed to go off as soon as it detects a potential problem so that any extensive fire damage to equipment and the building is minimized, therefore it operated as it is expected to," said Mr. Louisa.
He said part of the routine recovery process after such an incident, is for a "soft reset" when power is cut to all equipment, and the equipment is then switched on and rebooted.
"A problem developed when the room was cleared of gas and condensation began to affect the electrical components in the international switch," explained Mr. Louisa.
Staff suspect some components of the switch, including vital cards, were short-circuited when the equipment was rebooted, causing an interruption of the SMPR1 undersea fibre cable link between the Smitcoms Building and a connecting station in Puerto Rico.
Mr. Louisa said once the faulty cards were identified they were replaced with spare cards obtained from a telcom partner on French St. Martin and also from a Telecom provider in Curacao.
"We are most grateful to these operators for their assistance and look forward to returning assistance to them at some time in the future," said Mr. Louisa.
The CTO apologized to all residential and business customers on St. Maarten affected by the prolonged interruption in service, which he said was caused by a fire incident and was beyond the company's control.
TELEM Press Release
