By KRYSTEL ROLLE, Guardian Staff Reporter

Cable Bahamas said yesterday the recent disruptions of its services, which left thousands of consumers without Internet connection for several days last week, was "deeply regrettable and unacceptable."

Apologizing to the customers, Cable Bahamas President and COO Anthony Butler explained that the company was proceeding with a major service upgrade to its core IP network when it encountered unforeseen difficulties that severely impacted its Coral Wave service to residential and commercial customers. The team encountered the problems during the fourth day of the upgrades, which was November 12, Butler told The Guardian.

"We were cutting over from existing network to new platform but it didn't go as planned. We started seeing the problem about the end of our maintenance window," he said.

The interruption of services lasted about one week and affected all Internet subscribers, he noted. Butler said Cable Bahamas has over 35,000 residential customers and more than 3,000 commercial customers.

"This disruption was deeply regrettable and unacceptable — especially as customer service has always been a paramount priority for our company," said Butler.

"We understand that for both residential consumers and businesses alike, the ability to communicate and transfer vital information is critical and that prolonged disruptions cause real problems for customers."

Last week several people called The Guardian complaining about the frequent outages. Butler said Cable Bahamas was also flooded with calls. He said last week alone, it received about 1,300 calls from frustrated customers.

"The Internet is becoming an integral part of our daily lives now and that is something that we're getting more and more tenacious about," he said. "This was evidence of it."

Butler explained that the network was undergoing upgrades in an effort to increase the quality of service. The $10 million upgrade will double the capacity of Cable Bahamas' network. Butler said he does not see the company upgrading further in the foreseeable future.

Still, he admitted that the "prolonged outages" were unacceptable.

"We've reviewed the communications process and we feel we can work on it," Butler said. "It's very, very important and we'll strive to do better."

Butler said when maintenance work is scheduled, customers will be informed through e-mail, all media outlets and via the company's web site.

Additionally, if there is a disruption in services the company will provide regular updates to its customers and will notify customers when services will resume, Butler said.

Services have since been restored as that particular area of the upgrade is now complete, according to the company.

Up to yesterday, about 80 percent of upgrades were reportedly finished and Butler assured that the remainder of the work is expected to be seamless. He said the company hopes to avoid such disruptions in the future.