Three days on phones still down in quake-hit areas
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.