LIME is viewing with great concern the vandalizing of critical parts of its transmission equipment serving sections of North Eastern Jamaica which affected a significant portion of its customer base in part of St. Ann, St. Mary and Portland during most of today.

At least 70 cell sites, 25 Outside Plant Modules, which are used for landline service and 30 DSLAMs (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers) which are used for internet service were affected by this morning’s vandalism.  

Early this morning, unknown persons removed fibre closures which secure LIME’s transmission equipment at several points along a route which started in Rio Nuevo in St. Mary and ended at Priory in St. Ann.  While the closures themselves are not excessively expensive, their removal affected LIME’s service along the busy tourism and commercial corridor which includes Ocho Rios, Oracabessa and St. Ann’s Bay.

“The nature of the damage is highly suspicious and has definitely given us great cause for concern and while we will refrain from making definitive statements until our technical team and the police have completed their investigations we strongly suspect that this was more about damage to LIME’s equipment and reputation than theft due to the nature of the equipment that was stolen and the widespread impact it had on our service,” said LIME’s Regional Vice President, Corporate Communications, Errol K. Miller.

Mr. Miller said the heighten concerns is underscored by the fact that LIME was affected by a similar act of theft and vandalism last month this time in the Western end of the island.  In that instance, customers in Westmoreland, Hanover, Trelawny and St. James, including resorts, government entities and numerous residential customers were affected.

“Less than a month ago the exact same type of equipment was stolen on the Western side of the island which caused major service outages and again the equipment stolen would not necessarily be of value for resale but the loss of the equipment severely affected LIME’s ability to deliver service,” Mr. Miller explained.

The company will be working closely with the police to take additional security measures and also to bring the perpetrators to justice.

LIME’s customers in the affected areas were not totally without service as the resilience of the company’s network enabled some amount of communication but with reduced service quality.  The company’s technical crews have been quick to respond and are working to have a full restoration of service as soon as possible.