Ghana’s leading 4G LTE operator, Surfline Communications says it is coming out of the recent fire disaster stronger with 25% additional capacity and improved resilience to forestall any inconvenience to its customers in case of any future eventualities.

The company said it has fixed the challenges caused by the recent fire at its Tema-based data centre, which caused a total network outage.

Surfline said the network is about 90% back online and set to resume full operations in a few days.

Meanwhile, the company said customers are allowed to use the network for free during the mop up period and customers would also be given complimentary data when the network is fully restored in a few days.

Chief Executive Officer of Surfline, Dr. Yaw Akoto disclosed these at a press conference to update the public on the state of affairs following the February 1, 2015 fire at the backup power room that houses their data centre.

"Following the outage, our team of engineers immediately went to work to investigate, assess and put in measures as to how we could quickly turn the 4G LTE network back on. Our team, together with our technical service partners, have been working round the clock to restore full service to our customers. We appreciate the patience and support of our customers and business partners as well as the well wishes of Ghanaians in general,” Dr Akoto said.

He added the Surfline team has restored partial connectivity and has been testing the network to check its stability prior to restoring full and improved service to customers.

“We are happy to announce that, as of this morning, the majority of our systems are back on line and we are nearing full capacity. Our customers will continue to access our 4G LTE network for free over the next few days and ask that they continue to provide us with feedback on their experience,” he said. “We hope to be fully back by next week.”

Dr. Akoto said the fire disaster at Tema has not derailed Surfline’s plans to expand service to Kumasi before the close of this year.

“The expansion plan is still on course while we deal with the restoration of service in Accra and Tema separately,” he assured. 

Meanwhile, he expressed gratitude to the Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and other allied services for responding swiftly and putting out the fire to minimize possible damage to the total edifice.

He also thanked the Minister of Communications and the National Communications Authority for their full support during the trying period.