The Island's telecommunications providers were yesterday gearing up for the storm, with BTC issuing guidelines for its customers to follow in case of phones going down.

Both long distance providers, Cable & Wireless and TeleBermuda International said that they were not likely to be knocked out as they had "belt and braces" style provisions to stop any outages which were not likely to affect their satellite and underwater fibre optic cables out of the island.

Most outages will occur as overhead lines are knocked down by falling trees whipped out of the ground by the high winds.

In preparation for Hurricane Fabian, BTC advised its customers that the business offices will be closed today and will re-open on Monday.

"BTC repair crews will be standing by for all emergency situations," said a spokeswoman for the company.

"A BTC technician will be posted at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital to ensure that the PBX phone system is operational during the hurricane."

She added that it was important to remember that phone service may be intact, even if the electricity is not, so customers are advised to take the following precautionary steps:

1. If electrical power lines are out, it doesn't necessarily mean the phone lines are out. In these days of digital, cordless telephones which require an AC adapter to work, make sure to keep at least one "old fashioned" analogue phone to use during power failures.

2. In the event of a storm emergency, avoid unnecessary use of your phone except to report medical, fire or police emergencies. Call only once to report failure of electrical or telephone service.

3. Power surges can travel along telephone lines and may affect the modem on personal computers, therefore all telephone lines to computers should be unplugged.

BTC said general information relating to BTC's repair recovery plan can be obtained by calling 292-2226 for updates for the next 72 hours.

Cable & Wireless said they had satellites and two underwater cables and multiple back up generators and did not expect to be knocked out by the storm.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We are getting prepared for the storm and are working on battening everything down."

TBI said it operates on, and provides its international telecommunication services through, a fully-redundant, sub-sea fibres optic cable system.

"Primary power source for TBI is provided by Belco on the airport power grid," said a spokesperson. "Back-up power is provided via gel transition batteries through to dual-diesel generators that provide back-up power for in excess of eight days."