Activating their preparation mode, the executive team at ALIV revealed yesterday that customers will receive free mobile to mobile calling during and after the catastrophic category 5 Hurricane Irma.

Chief ALIV Officer, Damian Blackburn addressing a Press Conference  said that in order to ensure that their 80,000 plus customers can communicate with family and friends,  the company has decided to make it easier to weather the storm.

“In order that all of our customers can communicate with each other,  I am pleased to announce that from midnight on Thursday until midnight on Sunday all calls from ALIV to ALIV numbers will be free.

“We think it’s very important that our ALIV family, our wider ALIV family, all of our customers can speak to one another through the storm,” Mr. Blackburn said.

Mr. Blackburn in his comments also spoke to what ALIV representatives will have to face during the storm.

“We are ensuring our team, where it is safe to do so, are positioned in the [Family] Islands so, if we need to place rigors so that they can start climbing towers, when immediately the all clear is given [after the storm] and due reconnaissance they will be on the ground where it is safe to do so in the five islands that we operate,” Mr. Blackburn said.

“The customer care team and the customer care staff are critically important to make sure that messages go out so that if we are impacted by the storm you can call 611 and you can speak to them throughout the storm,” he said.

ALIV’s Chief Champion Johnny Ingle urged Bahamians not take Hurricane Irma lightly.

“This is a time for calmness, but it is also a time to be very cognizant of the challenge we face in relation to Irma.

“I would like to preface what I say in relation to the experience of Harvey  that has preceded Irma. Harvey landed in Texas, August 25, it was a category 4 hurricane.

“We are now facing category 5 Irma, it is moving this way.

“I urge everybody  to make every necessary preparation,  but understand that this is a serious challenge,” Mr. Ingle said.

Chief ALIV engineer Stephen Curran explained how the company has made plans to keep its customers up and running from the technical aspect, in advance of the storm.

“We have 147 cell sites, that lie around five islands of The Bahamas so far, New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, and Bimini.

“Over 90 percent of the cell sites have a backup secondary power system.

“Usually when a storm comes the main problem is loss of electrical power.   In order to mitigate that we have installed diesel generators, with five to eight diesel tanks.  Some sites have got what we call fuel cells also for backup power and we have a battery system as well on the cell sites, just in case generators doesn’t start,” Mr. Curran said.

Chief ALIV Solutions Architect Dwayne Davis, who is responsible for the mobile companies internal network said that his department is prepared to execute the best customer service throughout the storm.

“From a preparation point of view we have done all of our backups at our off site locations.

“We have zero redundancy, meaning that if Nassau gets affected we can roll to another location.

“So, as far as being able to top-up your phone, being able to get on to data, being able to make phone calls,  we are working very hard to ensure that they are working.

“Once our towers and antennas survive the storm, we will make sure that you are able to use your data.

“And one thing that is of concern to us is customer service, we are working very, very hard to ensure that our customer service is not impacted,” Mr. Davis said.