Cable and Wireless Grenada Limited has joined forces with the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organisations (CANTO) to restore its fixed lines to customers on the island.

The Cable & Wireless operation in Grenada was severely interrupted by the passage last September of Hurricane Ivan.

In speaking to reporters last Thursday in St. George's, the Secretary General of CANTO, Regenie Fraser said that the organisation sees its role in the Caribbean telecommunications community as one of "leadership, in influencing policy" and "in providing information in all aspects of the industry".

The CANTO group was primarily responsible for Cuba sending a work brigade to Grenada to help Cable & Wireless to speed up the restoration of downed lines in the Spice Isle.

Fraser pointed out that CANTO is happy to have facilitated this process and to have created this strategic alliance between two of its members - ETECSA in Cuba and Cable and Wireless Grenada. She said that CANTO is committed to working with its members to better deal with future natural disasters.

"I am pleased to inform you that we will be back in Grenada in November to hold an intensive workshop on business continuity planning to help prepare CANTO members to better deal with natural disasters in the future", she added.

The workshop will be hosted by the Business Continuity Institute International and co-hosted by Cable and Wireless Grenada. CANTO is a non-profit association of telephones operating companies in the Caribbean with 68 members in 32 countries.

Through Cable and Wireless membership in this association, more than thirty Cuban workers were brought to Grenada to assist the company in its restoration process. The workers have been in the Spice Isle for the past month and are expected to spend one more month in the country, to assist in the restoration of telephones services by the end of August.

The Cuban telephone company known as ETECSA is providing testing equipment, tools and trucks, while Cable and Wireless is providing accommodation, meals and materials for the Cuban workers.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cable and Wireless in Grenada, Ian Blanchard described the Cuban workers as very hard workers and team players who are working six days a week to restore the fixed lines in the country.

More than 90 percent of the country telephone services was destroyed by Ivan which swept through Grenada last September.