Yesterday evening, restoration of telephone service to 50,000 users in the municipalities of San Miguel de Abona and Arona began. Both residents and businesses, especially those living and operating in San Miguel de Abona and establishments in the Las Chafiras Commercial Estate area, were affected by the intermittent signal outage.
The service recovery occurred after the activation of a mobile unit set up as a temporary and urgent measure to cater to customers of various telephone companies.
The signal outage occurred following a fire that broke out early Sunday night in Montaña de Guaza (Arona). It led to the near destruction of a telecommunications facility located at this significant point in the region. As a result of the fire, services from Vodafone, Onda Tenerife, Europa FM, Contigo TV, La 10 TV, Marcha FM, Xanadú Radio Tenerife, and WiFi Canarias were affected either fully or partially.
The Guardia Civil is conducting an investigation to clarify the events due to suspicions that the fire affecting the transmitting and repeating centres was deliberate. In fact, a first fire in the same area was recorded back on March 13. On that occasion, the damages included cutting cables from a repeater of the Tenerife Fire Brigade, as well as the breakage of other communication facilities.
Over the past two days, telephone signal experienced intermittent interruptions and a very weak signal in a significant part of the municipality of Arona, from coastal towns to the urban centre, and in practically all of San Miguel de Abona. Among the most affected services were commercial establishments linked to La Caixa.
Sergio Martín, councillor for New Technologies and Commerce (among other areas) in San Miguel de Abona, intervened in finding solutions to this situation resulting from an alleged criminal act. The investigation is being carried out by members of the Guardia Civil.
The councillor explained that “from the outset, we were aware of the urgency of resolving this issue, as it was affecting the public and economic activity in the municipality,” referring to the challenges that the lack of telephone service causes for businesses. The councillor emphasised that the mobile unit is an emergency and temporary measure and hopes that the optimal restoration of the service will occur “as quickly as possible.”
