Technology

Island-Wide Viya Outage Caused by Property Owner Digging Hole; Viya Urges Swift Establishment of 'Call Before You Dig' Notification Center

ST. CROIX — The island-wide communications outage that affected Viya on Wednesday on St. Croix was caused by a landowner who was drilling holes along property line and utility easement of the roadway, Viya made known through a release Thursday. The landowner unknowingly cut the company's fiber optic cables which led to a communications blackout. The outage affected TV, phone and internet services Wednesday, with various service outages lasting almost the entire day for some customers. Viya saw the disruption of its services as yet another reason for the VI government to implement the "Call Before You Dig" law, established in 2015, which requires communication before such digging occurs.  "This incident highlights the criticality of a Call Before You Dig Notification Center," Viya said. "Had the landowner notified the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works (DPW) of its activities, Viya would have had the opportunity to indicate the presence of its cable and this incident could hav...