According to a Stormont MP, some Northern Ireland consumers may have to wait up to another two weeks to get their phone and internet connectivity back following Storm Éowyn.
Deborah Erskine, a member of the DUP assembly, claimed that the storm last month wrecked five communications towers.
Although practically everyone who was impacted now has electricity again, Erskine stated that the loss of connectivity was still a major issue.
A notification from Fibrus, a broadband provider, informed a client that service in their area would be restored by February 17—two weeks away—as reported by BBC News NI.
Fibrus had approximately 6,000 customers without service as of Monday afternoon as a result of verified fiber issues.
Older and more susceptible
All surviving clients were given a timeline, notwithstanding the statement that evaluating timelines was difficult “given the dependencies on other providers.”
Erskine, the assembly member (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, expressed concerns during Monday’s meeting regarding elderly and vulnerable clients who were still waiting for an estimated restoration time.
“People in my own constituency are forced to travel to access networks at their own expense,” she stated.
“This is not the time for telecoms companies to hide.” She asked Caoimhe Archibald, the recently appointed Economy Minister, to exert pressure on the networks to move faster.
Patsy McGlone, the SDLP MLA for Mid Ulster, stated that he had directed several clients to Fibrus, including one company that was informed that their supply would not be serviced for another week.
Although Archibald acknowledged the worries, she clarified that the UK Government—more especially, the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology—is in charge of telecoms.
A week after Storm Éowyn, 214,000 people in Northern Ireland are without electricity due to hurricane-force gusts.
How to keep your house safe during, during, and before a storm
Businesses were “working closely” with Northern Ireland Electricity, she continued, and where it was safe to do so, services were being restored.
“A post-incident review of Storm Éowyn led by the London government will take place on 10 February, and will assess the impacts, lessons learned and future impacts following the storm,” Archibald stated.
According to Fibrus, about half of all clients who were disconnected due to fiber breakage have been rejoined.
According to the provider, the storm caused “unprecedented levels” of damage.
Approximately 400,000 houses in Cumbria and Northern Ireland are connected to the network.
At the height of the storm, “roughly three quarters of which were related to power outages and the remainder related to damage to fiber infrastructure” affected about 40,000 customers.
In order to get clients back up as soon as possible, the provider reported that 300 workers were out in the field.
“Other infrastructure providers, like NIE and Openreach, are crucial to this role. Since power has been fully restored, we have been collaborating closely with NIE to properly understand the extent of the damage to our fiber network.
The Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology has also been contacted by BBC News NI for comment.
‘Very frustrating’
Since the storm, Mid Ulster resident and SDLP councillor Denise Johnston has been without internet.
The situation is “very frustrating” for many in the local neighborhood who have been left without broadband, she told the Evening Extra show.
“We often think that young people are the only people that are really dependent on the wifi, but we have all our businesses.”
According to her, a lot of elderly folks use Facebook and WhatsApp to stay in touch with their loved ones.
According to Fibrus, impacted customers who had service outages longer than 48 hours will be eligible for reimbursement on an individual basis.
NIE will restore power to all remaining households
On Monday, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) anticipates that the remaining homes and businesses that were left without electricity due to Storm Éowyn will have their power back.
Less than 100 people, primarily in County Fermanagh, are still without energy, Alex Houston told BBC News.
All households should have power by Monday night, as teams are now working on repairs in the region.
Further shortages for ‘safety’
However, Mr. Houston cautioned that as NIE works to “make the network safe again,” there might be other brief interruptions during the week.
Due to the storm’s continuous strong gusts of 95 mph, 285,000 homes and businesses lost electricity overall.
Power outages impacted almost 200,000 customers during the height of the interruption.
350 more engineers from the UK and Europe have been invited in by NIE to help local teams repair damage.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons promised £1 million on Tuesday to help people and communities hit by Storm Éowyn.
Then, Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald stated that discussions are still going on over compensation for those who lost power for days following Storm Éowyn.
Both the first and deputy first ministers of Northern Ireland urged NIE to provide goodwill payments to people who were without power for a number of days.
The discussions between Stormont, NIE, and the Utility Regulator are still going on, according to Archibald.
Thousands still without power in Republic
According to ESB Networks, around 30,000 residences, farms, schools, and companies in the Republic of Ireland were still without electricity on Monday night.
Over the course of Monday, another 2,000 houses received power again.
There are currently fewer than 400 locations without water.
To assist with power restoration, crews from Austria, Finland, France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway have arrived.