In Effort To Ramp Up Restoration, Viya Is Asking Customers To Post Their Address

Viya, formerly Innovative, is asking its customers who do not have an address on their home or business, to post their physical address in a location that is clearly visible from the roadway. The company says visible signage will make it much easier for its technical team to locate homes or businesses.

The announcement is part of Viya’s efforts to ramp up its restoration now that the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority is almost complete with its own work. Viya CEO Alvaro Pilar recently said that the company had completed repairs on about 24 percent of nodes on its network, a number that falls far behind Mr. Pilar’s goal of 75 percent restoration by February. Mr. Pillar was also projecting full restoration by next month.

Viya’s internet cables were on poles belonging to WAPA when the hurricanes struck, and the company has suffered huge losses as most of its customers are still without its multi-prong services package: cable TV, high-speed Internet service, and its landline telephone offering. The company’s wireless network, which was recently launched with 4G LTE, is up and running, and tests by The Consortium have yielded extremely positive results.

Even so, customers have left the company in great numbers because of the length of time it is taking to restore service. Mr. Pilar said during a press conference in December, held at the firm’s customer experience center on St. Croix, that he understood people’s frustration, but said he was determined to regain their business as the restoration progressed because of what he said was Viya’s superior offering.

And he is betting that the company will not only regain its customers but win additional ones once residents start to see the benefits of using the Viya network. “We have the service, we have the quality, we have the responsiveness — we’re going to be here,” he said. Mr. Alvaro mentioned how the company had gone from 13,000 high-speed Internet users to 25,000, touting the growth as a result of the company’s first-rate service. “We almost doubled; how did we do that? We started installing faster… we started giving double the speed for the same price, and people loved it,” he said. Mr. Alvaro took a dig at competitors he said lock customers into lengthy contracts, while Viya has no such stipulation. “With us you can leave whenever you want to. Why? Because my quality, my service, is going to be my signature.”

Feature Image: A Viya lineman works on a utility pole at the Sunny Isle intersection. (Credit: Ernice Gilbert, VIC)