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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeBusinessSt. Croix businessWhat's Happening With Viya Telephone and Internet

What’s Happening With Viya Telephone and Internet

Viya reports the Customer Experience Center on St. Croix is now open with normal operational hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Viya’s Customer Experience Centers on St. Thomas and St. John are closed until further notice due to the severity of the damage on both islands. 

The company did an assessment since the storm that found there is a significant number of fallen poles throughout the territory, especially on St. Thomas and St. John. Viya is asking members of the community to advise them of downed lines in their neighborhoods.

Customers should refrain from moving or cutting downed lines on their property or near their homes because they may be active power lines, telephone lines or cable TV lines. This is a severe safety hazard and tampering and or/cutting Viya’s lines can lead to major communication outages that will directly affect the community and hamper the restoration efforts in an area.

Viya officials say they are working with the V.I. Water and Power Authority (WAPA) and both utilities began coordinating recovery efforts before Hurricane Irma arrived.

Now, the network on St. John, which was hardest hit by Irma, is completely out. St. Thomas also received a great deal of devastation and most our subscribers are without service, but WAPA/Viya has been working through the last few days to restore service.

St. Croix received the least damage, and now the network is operational. There are customers who are experiencing service outages on St. Croix; Viya encourages them to call 777-VIYA to report their service affecting issues.

Although several of Viya’s cell towers were damaged on each island during the hurricane, overall Viya’s wireless service was able to weather the storm and proved to be the most reliable carrier in the Virgin Islands, according to Viya officials.

For those customers on the Hybrid-Fiber Coaxial network, during a commercial power outage, the eMTA battery back-up for telephone will provide up to eight hours of talk time. Viya urged customers to use telephone service during these times on an as-needed basis.

Customers who have generators or a back-up power source were able to maintain service. Viya wants customers to understand that if they do not have an additional battery or a back-up power supply, the use of the telephone should be reserved for emergency purposes only to conserve time on the battery. Customers on St. Croix will be able to swap their defective batteries now that the Customer Experience Center is open at Estate Diamond.

Recently, Viya created a dedicated online hurricane information page at www.viya.vi/hurricane. This is an interactive page designed for Viya’s employees and the public to post or blog any updates in their neighborhoods or throughout the territory that will be helpful to the community. People can also post to Facebook and include #hurricane; it will automatically post to www.viya.vi/hurricane. These pages are mobile compatible if someone does not have direct access to Internet.

Now that the hurricane has passed, for all customer care or service repair issues including outages, customers should call 777-Viya (8492).

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