Technology’s Little Ups and Downs

March 23, 2011

March has been a bad month for Digicel.

First Cyclone Atu took out the network for a few days, then nobody knew why the network was down for a few MORE days. The 9^th and 10^th it came back, the 11^th it was back out (just in time for the tsunami).

In the middle of the month, it was determined that Gaua was out of fuel. Gaua is the Southernmost island of the Banks, the closest to “civilization” distance-wise, but also the 3rd-ish most dangerous active volcano in the country so a little behind Vanualava in advancement. When ships come to Torba, their first stop is at Gaua. Unfortunately, no fuel-carrying ships had come up this way in a while.

Why does this matter for my cell phone service? There are two Digicel towers in Torba. One is on Vanualava – this is how I get my signal, and this is also the signal that reaches the shore of Mota Lava for Kerry. The other is on Gaua. The one on Gaua is the main base and runs on a large generator, which ran out of fuel. Because the Gaua base was not working, the Vanualava tower received no signal and stopped sending out its own.

So let’s get some gas, right? Well my friends, this is where we get the joy of living in Vanuatu…

Somebody on Gaua was pretty upset about not having cell phone service for two weeks (I mean, we all were, right?) so they… wait for it… BEAT THE FUEL TANK in retaliation.

Really effective, dude. Let’s destroy the tank so that when the gas actually comes (which it did, last week) we can’t refuel the system and restoration of the network is delayed as long as possible.

Supposedly Gaua has network again as of today (March 23) and we’ll be getting ours back shortly. Now, this is what they said last Wednesday too. Regardless, my wonderful English volunteer is currently in Vila and will be bringing me a TVL phone when she comes back on Monday. So even if Digicel is back by then, at least I’ll have a backup for next time the fuel tank mysteriously has a hole in it.

*Note: Network came back on Friday, March 25, and is still working Monday!