#NinaPH: Telco services down in parts of Southern Luzon

MANILA, Philippines – Strong winds from Typhoon Nina (Nock-ten), on Monday, December 26, disrupted the service operations of Globe Telecom Incorporated and Smart Communications in some parts of Southern Luzon.

Globe reported voice, call, and data service disruptions in some parts of Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Marinduque, Masbate, Oriental Mindoro, and Quezon, as of noontime on Monday.

The onslaught of Typhoon Nina caused commercial power interruption and multiple fiber cuts, resulting in temporary service disruptions, especially in Albay and Camarines Sur, the Ayala-led telco added.

“Based on our network team assessment, intermittent services were mostly caused by commercial power outages in the Bicol Region. Generator sets for cell towers are now being used to allow customers to use basic telecommunications services such as calls and text messaging,” said Yoly Crisanto, senior vice president for corporate communications of Globe.

“[A]t least 6 towers located in Camarines Sur (4 towers), Albay, and Marinduque were structurally affected, which will make full service restoration longer. The towers were reportedly damaged because of strong winds that ran up to 200 kilometers per hour. Multiple fiber cuts were also reported from Pili to Legaspi,” she added.

Meanwhile, Smart Communications said as of 3pm, December 26, about 86% of Smart’s cell sites in the 14 provinces in South Luzon affected by Typhoon Nina were operating, providing voice and SMS services.  

Smart saud disruption of services was heavily concentrated in the areas hardest hit by the storm. These are the provinces of: 

• Catanduanes, where services were disrupted this morning after the radio transmission link to the island province was damaged);
• Marinduque, where half of the cell sites were operating; and 
• Albay, Camarines Sur and Romblon, where about 60% of facilities were operational. 

Globe and Smart said they have dispatched technical personnel to immediately restore affected network services. – Rappler.com