USF restoring island-wide infrastructure after more than $800M hurricane damage

The Universal Service Fund is reporting that it suffered a major blow during the passage of Hurricane Melissa which left upwards of $800 million in damage to its infrastructure.

Chief Executive Officer of the Universal Service Fund Charlton McFarlene told Radio Jamaica News that, of its 415 sites island-wide, about 385 were damaged. These include public and community Wi-Fi.

Mr McFarlene said none of its Wi-Fi network withstood the devastation caused by the hurricane in central and western parishes.

He said the USF is using solar and satellite technology to restore Wi-Fi to some of the badly affected parishes.

More than 50 of these sites were restored and are currently in operation in western Jamaica, with work being done on another 50.

That will account for “more than two-thirds of what was damaged in the western end of the island, and the aim… is to have full restoration before the end of the fiscal year for the western parishes,” he said.

He added that about 50 per cent of Wi-Fi sites in eastern Jamaica have already been restored.

He said the restoration in eastern Jamaica has been more straightforward than in the west “because the infrastructure that we relied upon prior to Melissa were not as badly damaged, we are seeking to restore almost as is, but then look to add the satellite technology as a further redundancy to our model, going forward.”