HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Local telecom companies are reporting that most of the island’s cellular sites are now back online and customers should see mobile connections beginning to improve.
Power fluctuations, however, remain a hurdle to repairing internet, television and home phone services.
Exact numbers on how many cell sites and how many home customers continue to be offline weren’t available as of press time Thursday. The Federal Communications Commission last week ceased reporting exact numbers, at the request of Adelup. About 1 in 5 cell sites were offline at the time, along with nearly 2,000 home and office customers. Just after Typhoon Mawar, about 70% of cell sites were offline.
The island’s three major providers are reporting improvements, with power fluctuations and outages still the main cause of drops in service. Though the power grid remains fragile, the Guam Power Authority reported Wednesday that about 81% of customers had power restored, and that more rotating power outages weren’t expected.
Following are the latest updates from the island’s three main telecom providers.
GTA
A majority of GTA Teleguam’s wireless network sites were operational as of Wednesday, the company said in a press release.
“Please note this is a fluid situation and cell sites may go down due to power outages or generator issues,” the company stated, adding that customers with cell outages should contact the GTA support center at 671-644-4482.
While the company continues to repair network infrastructure in the villages, the return of island power is needed before home internet, phone and telephone services can be fully restored, GTA said. Power fluctuations recently damaged network equipment at Baza Gardens in Yona and Apra Heights in Sånta Rita-Sumai, but both sites have been repaired. Cell service in Humåtak was under repair as of Wednesday.
Customers experiencing issues with home services are advised to:
• Check that all the connections are securely plugged into the modem.
• Unplug the power to the modem for one minute. Plug the power in and wait three to five minutes to initialize.
• Plug in/power up your internet devices or digital TV set-top box once the modem has had time to boot up.
If those steps have been completed, call the GTA support center at 671-644-4482 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, email ask@gta.net or live chat with a representative online at www.gta.net.
Docomo
At Docomo Pacific, most cell sites are operational and providing talk and text signals, according to spokesperson Jared Roberto.
“Our crews now move to ‘optimizing’ antennas to bring our mobile service quality to its original state, pre-storm,” Roberto said. “Optimizing is the process of realigning antennas to ensure they’re directed toward their designated areas.”
A few cell sites remain on portable generator power, but a special task force at the company has been created to handle refueling.
Customers looking to avail themselves of service credits from Docomo will no longer have to put in requests with the company, which announced Thursday morning that accounts will be credited automatically. Credits will be applied to the customer’s July invoice for outages experienced from May 24 to June 30, the company said in a press release.
IT&E
IT&E didn’t provide an update to The Guam Daily Post as of press time Thursday, but reported June 15 that 96% of its cell sites were operational.
BEAM home internet subscribers will receive 50% off their billing for June, reflected in their July statement, and postpaid cell subscribers will get unlimited data until further notice, the company stated.
California Pacific Technical Services and Docomo Pacific Guam employees work on a project in Tiyan on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
