Three days on phones still down in quake-hit areas

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Phone lines are still down three days after a 8.7-magnitude earthquake rocked islands off the west coast of Sumatra island.

Communication was disrupted when more than 3,800 telephone lines went dead in Gunung Sitoli and Teluk Dalam on Nias island, as well as in Sinabang, Simeulue island, and Singkil in Aceh, an official said on Thursday.

Mundarwiyarso, communications coordinator of state telecommunications firm PT Telkom, said repair work would take time, but added that it could take less than the three months it took to restore phone services in tsunami-hit Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

He said that five teams of three to four people each had been assigned from Medan to repair phone lines in Sinabang and Singkil.

"The problem is that (Nias) airport has been damaged, but hopefully they (the team) will be able to land in Nias to restore communication services in several towns to end their isolation," Mundarwiyarso said at the firm's headquarters in Bandung, West Java.

The company has sent five drums of diesel fuel by naval ship from Sibolga in North Sumatra to supply the generator at its Gunung Sitoli office.

According to a preliminary report received by the company, 872 lines in Sinabang on Simeulue island were out of order. Only one of four units of Flexi, Telkom's fixed wireless service, on the island was still working. The four units were only installed after the tsunami swept across Aceh and North Sumatra on Dec. 26 last year.

"We are hopeful that all the Flexi will be functional in Sinabang next week," he said.

In Singkil, 536 phone lines were severed when the ground on which the phone company's exchange stands subsided 40 centimeters, causing seawater to rush in and flood the generator.

In Gunung Sitoli, 80 percent of the 2,480 lines were down because many houses and buildings were destroyed. In Teluk Dalam, 436 lines were cut because the generator was flooded.

To help people in the meantime, Telkom has established several free lines to enable quake victims to get in touch with relatives outside the island.

At a post in the Nias island regental administration office, the company has provided 0639-21234 (hunting line) for incoming calls. There are also 11 free Flexi lines for local, long distance and cellular phone connections.

"The free Flexi lines are installed in shelters set up by local administrations for displaced persons in Teluk Dalam and Gunung Sitoli," Mundarwiyarso said.

Seven Flexi numbers are available in Sinabang for outgoing calls only, he added.

On Thursday, the company was still counting total losses caused by the disaster in Nias and surrounding areas. "Our team will enter quake-hit areas today (Thursday), so maybe we'll get the results on Monday," Mundarwiyarso said.

Meanwhile, PT Pos Indonesia temporarily stopped postal services on Nias and in surrounding areas due to nine of its post offices being damaged in the earthquake.

According to company spokesman Arief Setyanto, seven of the company's 27 employees went missing in the disaster.

"But we can still pay the salaries of around 1,000 civil servants and retirees due to a special service," he said.