The prolonged power outages affecting Santiago de Cuba are also leaving thousands of people without mobile coverage: between 140 and 150 Etecsa sites are out of service daily due to a lack of electricity or fuel to keep the generators running.
The magnitude of the problem was acknowledged by Ricardo Serrano Díaz, territorial director of the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa), in a report published by Granma this Sunday regarding the decline of telecommunications in the province.
«85% of the mobile network operates on energy, and we do not always have fuel to meet this shortfall; we have 200 mobile sites (transmission towers) that are currently shut down due to lack of energy or fuel to support the generators. In real time, 140 to 150 are being turned off daily for this reason», stated Serrano, putting the magnitude of the crisis into perspective.
The impacts are not limited to mobile telephony. According to the executive, the most significant issues in the fixed network are concentrated in Santiago de Cuba, San Luis, Contramaestre, Palma Soriano, and Songo-La Maya, while Etecsa claims to be providing an average of just 120 solutions daily.
In light of the lack of electricity, Etecsa is trying to expand the use of solar energy. Currently, Santiago de Cuba has 17 mobile sites powered by solar panels and the company hopes to end the year with 35 protected installations, but this is evidently a temporary solution to a much deeper situation.
The energy crisis has made electricity one of the main weak points of the telecommunications infrastructure, but in addition to the lack of power, there is also the damage caused by theft and vandalism.
In Santiago de Cuba, for example, there have been reported more than 40 incidents against telecommunications networks and facilities, according to the official report.
64% would have been concentrated in the José Martí urban center.
However, the problem became evident once again this weekend when two solar panels were stolen from a phone cabinet in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood, just a few blocks away from one of the police stations in the city, leaving nearly 900 users without backup energy for their phone and data services.
Theft of panels, connections, tower components, breakers, and radio base equipment has also been reported. Serrano acknowledged that in some cases, Etecsa does not have the necessary resources to replace the stolen items.
As expected, the problem is not limited to the province of Santiago de Cuba. In Las Tunas, for example, thefts of solar panels and cables have impacted facilities related to water, telecommunications, and electricity generation, worsening the vulnerability of essential services that are already suffering due to blackouts.
In addition, days earlier, Etecsa had already warned of an increase in interruptions caused by power outages and issues with the generators.
The company itself has acknowledged that, during power outages, nearly 47.5% of mobile radio bases and 56.5% of telecommunications cabinets may go out of service.
Of the approximately 2,520 radio bases in the country, only about half have some form of energy backup, and around 450 are experiencing mechanical issues or a lack of fuel in their generators.
Related videos:
Filed under: