Cable being loaded at Crocus Bay.
ANGUILLA--From Saturday morning until Monday afternoon there was no communication in Anguilla through FLOW or Digicel. Residents discovered on Saturday that they had no Internet, no phone service, no television and no local communication. It was a difficult and strained few hours until FLOW established some emergency numbers that were then available and made people feel less out of touch. The FLOW and Digicel managers advised customers of options to try to use the Chippie provider, but this only worked for a few customers.
Divers and technicians involved in the restoration.
The cause of the problem was reportedly a mega yacht that anchored 500 metres off Crocus Bay and let down two anchors some 45 feet. One of these cut the cable on the sea bottom and thus cut all communication to Anguilla.
A team of divers and technicians from St. Maarten arrived on island on Sunday and by Monday morning, February 21, services were slowly restored. On Monday afternoon residents were delighted to find all communication was restored and life could return to normal.
On the FLOW Facebook page, management stated, “We wish to express our profound gratitude to the members of our regional technical team, divers, our local customer experience team, retail team and service support delivery team whose tremendous efforts helped us to get our customers reconnected to our services! We couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you!”
Similarly, Digicel, on its Facebook page, stated, “We’re thrilled to announce that all services have been fully restored. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.”
The management of both providers, FLOW and Digicel, are to hold meetings with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Communications to discuss how to avoid a similar situation in the future.
