An aerial view of Virac, Catanduanes on November 3, 2020, two days after Super Typhoon Rolly hit the area leaving 75 percent of houses in the town damaged or destroyed according to the Virac government. The local government says it is running low on resources to help in the aftermath of the typhoon and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff Canoy, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - The country’s two main telcos said Wednesday they have restored telecommunications services in parts of Catanduanes, as well as in other parts of the storm-ravaged Bicol region.
PLDT-Smart and Globe Telecom said they are also working to restore services in other parts of the Bicol region that were hard-hit by super typhoon Rolly.
Smart said residents of Catanduanes can now make calls as swell as send and receive text messages, after the Manny Pangilinan-led telco restored mobile services in the province this morning.
“We used our own aircraft to bring our crew to Catanduanes to begin repairing downed equipment so we can immediately connect the province to the rest of country,” said Al Panlilio, PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart president.
Besides Catanduanes, PLDT said its personnel are working round-the-clock to restore services in Albay, Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte.
Globe said it has restored its call and text services in the town of San Andres and LTE services and internet browsing in Virac, Catanduanes.
In Camarines Sur, call and text services are likewise restored in the following municipalities of Bombon, Bula, Cabusao, Calabanga, Del Gallego and Lupi which were heavily affected in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Rolly,” Globe said.
Globe said all its cell sites in the two areas in Catanduanes and the six municipalities in Camarines Sur are now fully operational.
The Ayala-led telco said it is "exerting all means possible" to immediately restore critical services in Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes. It added that it has already restored network coverage in Camarines Norte, Marinduque, Sorsogon, Samar and Western Samar.
Globe and PLDT said they also set tup Libreng Tawag, Libreng Charging stations in areas ravaged by the storm.
PLDT, Smart, Globe, telco services, Catanduanes, Albay, Camarines, Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate, Libreng Tawag, Libreng Charging, super typhoon Rolly, #RollyPH