Cable woes cut service for Globe subscribers

Thousands of Globe subscribers in Cebu were inconvenienced after the telecom company experienced a service interruption at 1 p.m yesterday.

In a statement yesterday, Yoly Crisanto, Globe Corporate Communications chief, said a “fiber cut” or damaged submarine cable caused Globe Telecom’s service interruption, which covered select areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

“As a result, subscribers in these areas may experience difficulty in sending text messages, making calls or using mobile Internet,” Crisanto said.

She said Globe’s technical team is still verifying the location of the damaged cable.

Crisanto said the cable may have been damaged by rough seas caused by tropical storm Bebeng.

She said she couldn’t give a specific time for completion of repairs, but added that she hoped they repaired the cable at the earliest by 6 p.m. yesterday.

Crisanto asked subscribers in Cebu and Davao cities for their patience and understanding.

“Our people are working round-the-clock,” she said.

Globe Corporate Communications officer Edward Joseph Francisco said initial findings of their network group revealed that areas affected by the network interruption were Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Agusan, Davao and Zamboanga.

Earlier Globe Telecom Inc. president and chief executive officer Ernest L. Cu said the company ended 2010 with a mobile SIM subscriber base of 26.5 million, a 14 percent increase from the previous year.

He said Globe prepaid ended 2010 with 13.8 million subscribers while its Touch Mobile closed the year with 11.6 million subscribers.

Globe’s transmission lines include their second domestic fiber optic backbone network and the TGN-Intra Asia cable system, which terminates at Globe’s cable landing station in Northern Luzon.

“Globe is also the exclusive landing party in the Philippines of the Southeast Asian Japan Cable System (SJC) which is expected to be completed by 2013,” Cu said.

Yesterday’s service interruption inconvenienced offices like the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management (CCDRRM) and Cebu City Mobile Alarm Response System (MARS).

Molly Guarin of CCDRRM said he was in the middle of a demolition in Mahiga Creek when he tried to contact CCDRRM chief Alvin Santillana, a Globe subscriber, through his cell phone to no avail.

“My handheld radio was drained so I decided to use my cell phone … but I couldn’t even check my balance and I went to buy some load but was told that the network was busy,” he said.

He said nearly all CCDRRM staff use Globe over their issued handheld radios.

Guarin said he had to go to their main office in Natalio Bacalso Avenue, Cebu City, to use the landline to contact his peers, along with the UHF radio base.

At the MARS office, operator Calvin Bondoc observed that their Globe alarm system went off for the rest of the afternoon.

MARS is tasked to take reports and alarms through text.

The system has Globe, Smart and Sun networks. Aside from taking reports, MARS also sends back verified reports to its registered subscribers.

At the Department of Health (DOH), Dr. Expedito Medalla, head of the Regional Epidemiological and Surveillance Unit (RESU-7), said he had to use a landline connection after his Globe cell phone went off.

Medalla, a Globe subscriber for two years, said he is dependent on his mobile phone in completing his daily meetings and transactions.

“I’m already used to it. Yesterday I realized that we should not be too dependent on mobile phones,” he said.

Medalla, who was helping organize a national health forum in Cebu, said he will propose the installation of a radio system at the DOH office as backup.

Another health official and Globe subscriber Dr. Noreen Pakanya of the Cebu City Memorial Medical Center (CCMC) said she wasn’t bothered by the service interruption since she wasn’t dependent on her cell phone for her work. With Correspondent Edison delos Angeles