PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Since Sept. 14, thousands of Digicel customers in Haiti have faced significant internet connectivity issues due to a severed submarine cable. The disruption has left many families in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince stranded without reliable service, compounding the challenges of living amid gang-fueled insecurity.
Digicel, one of the two major telecommunications companies operating in Haiti and the largest provider of mobile and internet services, attributes the outage to a severed submarine cable located about 34 miles north of Port-au-Prince at Kaliko Beach Club, an informal all-inclusive resort. The Jamaica-based company accuses the hotel's owner, Paret Hospitality Group S.A., of refusing them access to the property to conduct necessary repairs. This impasse has escalated into a public exchange of press releases and prompted the involvement of the country's regulator, Conseil National des Télécommunications (CONATEL), and the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT).
According to Digicel, several services have remained dysfunctional since Saturday. Technicians are on-site but unable to access the property due to the ongoing dispute with the hotel. In an open letter, Kaliko Beach Club manager Fritz Emmanuel Paret alleged that the telecommunications company owes his company $2.5 million for property use rights since 2019.
"Despite multiple attempts to resolve this matter, the debt has not been paid and now exceeds USD 2.5 million," Paret wrote.
However, Digicel's CEO, Jean Philippe Brun, denied these claims on Magic 9 Radio and in a subsequent press release on Monday.
"We have no debt to Paret Hospitality Group S.A. Legal action has been pending since 2021, and no court decision has been made," Brun said. "Paret Hospitality Group S.A. cannot unilaterally demand financial compensation," he added, emphasizing that this cable cut impacts all operators in the country, not just Digicel.
In response to the accusations, Digicel has threatened legal action against Paret for defamation and has indicated that a complaint has already been filed against the resort manager. Meanwhile, CONATEL is actively involved, with reports indicating that CONATEL has initiated a lawsuit to ensure access to the site for repairs, as reported by Le Nouvelliste.
"The entire country should not bear the costs of this litigation," the paper quoted a source saying.
The Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), through Leslie Voltaire, intervened Tuesday in the dispute between the telecom giant and Kaliko Beach owner over the contract to operate the site housing optical fibers essential to the power supply of Digicel data centers. Trying to resolve the conflict immediately, Voltaire met with stakeholders in the telecommunications sector, including representatives from NATCOM, the other major operator in the country, CONATEL, the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications (MTPTC), the National Police (PNH) and the Ministry and a judge of peace.
Following the meeting, the authorities dispatched police officers and the judge, accompanied by Digicel technicians, to intervene on the site to resolve the outage, which affected communications in several areas of the country. Currently, the problem remains unresolved.
For many observers in Haiti, with the internet service disruption continuing to affect thousands, a swift resolution is critical, particularly given the essential nature of communication services in a time of national crisis. There have also been calls for a more long-term solution, preventing this problem from recurring. Some say that the Haitian government should consider declaring the area of the site where the optical fibers are located a public utility zone.