|
|
|
|
|
Nawras Worked Hard To Provide Customers With Service Throughout Weekend’s Heavy Storm
Published Jun 10, 2010
|
Throughout the weekend’s stormy weather, Nawras, a Qtel Group company, worked hard to successfully maintain uninterrupted mobile coverage for its customers. Some employees were on duty for 48 hours non-stop while those manning the Nawras Store at Sur including manager Aymen Al Alawi continued to serve customers on Friday even as the situation in that area became extremely difficult. Caring Nawras also took steps to ensure its own people were safe and taken care of.
As soon as word of the impending storm was received, the Nawras Business Continuity Committee had swung into action. The same professionals that had handled the last similar incident quickly reformed into their responsive units and these experienced team members immediately began the necessary preparations of securing generators, assembling necessary spare parts, refuelling all cars and making sure all phones were fully charged. Fuel was secured and distributed and water pumps and sandbags were dispatched to all critical Nawras buildings where an electrician and air-conditioning engineer was placed on standby too. Steps were immediately taken to protect and secure base stations and Nawras people were dispatched to monitor and maintain all major communication points. Several field maintenance teams were sent to the area between Sur and Masirah where it was anticipated that equipment would experience the severest conditions.
Advance preparations also included sending additional stock of Nawras SIM-cards and recharge cards to all Nawras Stores and Nawras alerted its customer service champions who were on 24-hour duty as always. As the hours went by, champions were kept updated with progress reports from the field to ensure that customers were able to stay fully informed of the latest situation in their particular area.
Overall, the Nawras network once again proved to be extremely resilient although one or two areas naturally suffered as a result of the high winds and heavy rain. To the south of Sur Nawras suffered some structural damage with one tall mast carrying communication equipment getting broken at the height of the storm and yet, despite this and multiple power and cable cuts in Sur, Nawras was able to ensure that customers in the area suffered only minor service interruptions. Fortunately Nawras was able to reroute disrupted traffic by using its recently installed fixed cables that were in the process of being cut over for the imminent launch of the new broadband services.
At Al Amerat and Qurayat network infrastructure was severely battered by the weather. In one incident, Nawras needed to send up a mountaineering team on foot to uncover a damaged cable as a result of a rock falling from a landslide. Despite the difficult terrain and heavy flow of water, in just over 36 hours the break was repaired and multiple generators were deployed in the area. As a result, Al Amerat’s communication links were back up by Saturday afternoon and Qurayat by Saturday evening.
“Once again this situation has seen a tremendous team effort from everyone at Nawras and particularly those involved in installing and maintaining the Nawras network as well as those relaying news of repair work to our customers,” said Peter Rubeck, chief technical officer. “We apologise to all customers who have experienced difficulties and we are confident that we will shortly restore full communication service to all our valued customers. In the meantime, we thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”
At the height of the storm Nawras had sites down that cover just under 5% of customers and by 6 June this had reduced to less than 2% with the remaining areas largely due to power cuts in the Sharqiyah region. The company is deploying generators wherever necessary and continuing to work closely with the electricity board to do everything possible to restore service to customers at the first available opportunity.
There was also concern for all Nawras people during the bad weather and the company went to great lengths to ensure that everyone was safe and accounted for. Apart from the teams braving the elements to make network repairs, the majority of those involved
in looking after customers were located in the main office and technical building in Muscat as well as the Nawras Store at Sur. In all cases, emergency supplies of food, water and bedding were provided. Nawras contacted all its people to check on their well-being and as a result moved a small number to a hotel when their homes were flooded. Nawras is a caring company and concerned about every member of its internal and external family.
While efforts continued on Sunday to restore services as fast as possible to those few remaining pockets that remained without network coverage, the company took time to thank all those who have been working so hard both within the Nawras family and beyond, to maintain services for customers.
“We are most grateful to the different authorities for their prompt and valuable collaboration with the Nawras Business Continuity Committee team at Nawras, despite being under enormous pressure from so many areas. This collaboration, together with the dedication of our own people, was vital in allowing the vast majority of our customers to stay in contact with their friends and family throughout the unusual weather event and enabled us to quickly restore Nawras services where necessary,” said Peter Rubeck, chief technical officer.
For more infromation:
Julie Amann
Press Manager
T: +968 9510 3669
E: julie.amann@nawras.om
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
|
|
|
|
|
