MiPhone says that the controlled shutting down of its service to its non-Corporate Area customers ahead of Hurricane Ivan, allowed it to secure its systems and the safety of those residing in the vicinity of its various transmission facilities throughout the island.

The cellular phone company began restoring service to its customers on Monday, the first working day after the storm hit Jamaica.

"As catastrophic damage was anticipated with Ivan, MiPhone manually turned down the generators and cellular equipment at those sites outside of Kingston," said the company in a press statement earlier this week. "This manual approach would minimise the safety risk and environmental impact caused by trying to operate a site with severe damage to either the electronics or the generator itself."

The company said it provided continuous service in the Corporate Area, with the main switching and network centre in New Kingston powered by its own generators - the storm having knocked out the power supply of the Jamaica Public Service Company.

The company said its own generators could power its sites to operate its network for up to two weeks without refueling.
However, JPSCo reported that since Monday power was restored to about 40 per cent of the island.

"At the Hilton Hotel, many foreign news journalists and Jamaican government officials were able to file their reports using the MiPhone 1X CDMA wireless data service," said the company.

This high-speed service is now being tested by MiPhone for commercial introduction.

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