Maximea & Co. Legal Secretary Angelica Avelino said an attorney working in her office rushed out of the building to attend to a legal matter in court on Monday morning, only to find out that it had been pushed back to another day.
A slow Internet connection had prevented the lawyer from checking the morning’s updated court docket, she said.
Nearby, Sharon Glasgow at Caribbean Realty Limited said she was having problems loading web pages on her computer, and Trinity BVI Financial Services Managing Director Kenneth Hodge said his online-based business was suffering.
Meanwhile, there were dozens of comments on the Facebook page BVI Community Forum complaining about slow or no connection.
Many were blaming the LIME network for the slowdown.
“This seems to be an island-wide problem, so there must be something wrong with LIME connection,” wrote Joel Demonteverde. “LIME should give a rebate for this.”
Others, such Capriccio di Mare Manager Sherry Moses, wondered if the slowdown was due to problems with their own equipment. Ms. Glasgow also said that her office had both LIME and Digicel connections.
Starting on Friday, the LIME connection at the Beacon’s office was slow, too, making it difficult for reporters to do even simple online tasks such as opening the bvibeacon.com site and sending and receiving e-mail messages.
LIME reponse
At the LIME headquarters on Monday, the company’s marketing and corporate communications director, Kareem-Nelson Hull, admitted that some of the service provider’s customers were experiencing difficulties with their landline Internet.
He said that the problem was contained to those who use landline service, and that customers with troubles can call 494-4444 to restore full service.
Mr. Hull explained that the fallouts are due to upgrades the company is implementing. He said that people who call the number above will have their problems fixed immediately, and that the network should be 100 percent by the end of the week even for those who don’t call a technician.
“This problem is being addressed all the way up to our general manager,” he said. “When the GM is involved, you know we’re giving our full attention to address the issue as quickly as possible.”
Prompted by a query the Beacon posted on its Facebook page, Ian Clark reported that his service was back up and running.
“Happy to say mine is now working well again and LIME was very helpful,” he wrote, adding that the company sent a technician to his house.
Response from TRC
At the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Chief Economist Sarah Haynes said Tuesday that the commission’s CEO, Guy Malone, was out of the office and that she couldn’t speak on the issue.
The TRC did, however, release a statement saying that LIME had informed the commission that some customers were experiencing a loss or slowdown of service.
“We understand the upgrades are to address congestion issues,” the statement said.
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