The Maui News
Verizon service has been restored along Kula Highway in Ulupalakua and Keokea and in Kula, Pukalani, Makawao and along the North Shore of Maui, the company said over the weekend.
Partial service was also restored to a portion of West Maui from Maalaea to the Lahaina Civic Center. There is significant structural damage to cell sites serving Lahaina, so Verizon engineers are working to move a mobile cell site to restore partial service in that community.
Verizon engineers on Saturday were also moving tethered drones into the western area of Maui that, when fully deployed, will provide cell service from the air for search, rescue and recovery efforts underway, a news release said.
Kahana resident Tony Cremona, a Verizon customer, was relieved to have cell service again on Sunday afternoon. He and his wife lost electricity for a couple of days, forcing them to throw out some products, and they haven’t been able to use cellphones or their landline. On Friday, their lights came back on, and on Sunday, he was able to make calls on his cell again.
“We can turn the TV on and watch recorded programs, but … you can’t even access Channel 9, Channel 2. We don’t have any news,” Cremona said. “We only rely on what somebody else (said) who happened to get a call from somebody else out.”
Verizon said that fiber which connects cell sites to the rest of the network is out of service in the Honokowai area. Verizon engineers are working to connect those cell sites using a satellite connection instead. Satellite links have far less capacity than the fiber typically used for connecting cell sites to the rest of the network, so customers may experience slower speeds and capacity constraints until fiber connections can be restored.
Additional disaster response engineers landed in Maui Friday, bringing with them deployment network assets. Verizon also is working to bring more equipment to Maui.
While Verizon works to restore the network, there may be inconsistent and partial restoration of network coverage. Verizon recommends using text and call and to avoid data-heavy applications.
Verizon is offering free device charging and bottled water to customers of any carrier at its Puunene retail store at 80 Hookele St., Suite 440. The company is also offering unlimited calling, texting and data for its prepaid and postpaid customers who live on Maui from Aug. 10-23. This includes all prepaid and postpaid consumer and small business customers with Maui billing addresses.
In addition, Verizon-owned prepaid brands including Straight Talk, Tracfone, Total by Verizon, Simple Mobile, Safelink, Walmart Family Mobile, Net10, GoSmart and Page Plus announced that customers with Maui zip codes reaching their month-end service Aug. 10-13 will have their service extended by another week.
Verizon is providing free wireless device charging at the following Red Cross shelters on the island: Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani, War Memorial and the South Maui Community Park Gymnasium.
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