Eircom warns technicians grounded in icy weather

3 Dec 2010

Eircom has said that field technicians in Wexford, Carlow and Wicklow are almost completely grounded due to icy road conditions and that there are now 4,000 reported broadband and telephone faults.

The company said that 1,400 faults were reported yesterday alone.

Some 600 Eircom crews are working nationwide to reach customers without services and 5,000 faults have been repaired since Monday.

The areas with the highest fault levels are north Dublin city and county, Dublin city centre and south county Dublin, as well as counties Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford, Laois and Meath.

Grounded technicians

Travel conditions remain difficult all over the country but especially in rural and upland areas on the east coast.

There are a number of areas inaccessible to Eicom’s technicians, including parts of Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Waterford, as well as the areas previously identified: Brittas, Aughrim, Roundwood, Glendalough, Newtownmountkennedy, Blessington and Rathdrum.

“All available technicians have been diverted onto fault repairs and crews will continue to carry out repair work throughout the weekend,” an Eircom spokesman said.

“With forecasters predicting further snow and icy conditions throughout the weekend, we do ask customers to be patient as we work to repair all faults as quickly as possible.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com