Rathcormac company's long wait for telephone service after storm
Reports coming into The Avondhu this week suggest there are still some outlying areas where telephone service hasn't been restored following Storm Darwin.
Telephone landline and broadband services were affected in a number of areas as high winds brought down trees onto lines and also brought down poles. While most faults were repaired quickly and service restored, it's reported that in some parts of Ballyhooly, which was badly affected at the time, some customers are still without service. It's the same in the Balinamodough, Lyrebarry and Liss areas of Araglin.
We've also have reports from Castletownroche of customers without landline service for five weeks. That's also the case on the Glenville side of Ballyhooly where it was earlier storms, and not Darwin, that caused the damage.
One local business which experienced a long delay in having phone and broadband service reinstated is Rathcormac Tyres. They lost their landline service in the storm on Wednesday, February 12th and only had it reinstated on Tuesday morning of this week. The tyre wholesaler trades throughout the 26 counties and the loss of their landline caused major inconvenience. Their broadband access was also down, preventing their customers from ordering online.
"As 95% of our sales are completed over the landline and internet online ordering system, it made doing business quite difficult," a company spokesperson said. The only saving grace was that they were able to divert their landline to a mobile which allowed them maintain contact with their customers.
The Avondhu contacted their service provider, Imagine Telecommunications Group, about the delay in restoring service, but no-one was available for comment.
Published:
Friday 7th March 3:19pm
