Cablevision say it may take another week to restore service to the 350 homes still without service two weeks after storms damaged its network.

General Manager Jeremy Elmas said the firm had hired more staff to cope with repairs.

He said the storms had been particularly hard on worn and outdated cable which the company is replacing over the next 18 months.

Mr. Elmas: "The six miles of fibre optic cable which have already been erected, according to new construction standards, sustained no damage at all."

He said the company was now hiring additional administration, managerial and technical staff and had already recruited more field personnel and customer service representatives.

He said: "Improving customer service remains an overriding priority for Cablevision.

"As we rebuild our cable system to ensure greater reliability and deliver more services, we are also focusing on creating a top-notch customer service organisation."

The statement brought a hollow laugh to customer Kelly Tucker from Khyber Pass, Warwick who had not had cable since the storm, despite the fact that her neighbours are okay.

She said engineers had failed to turn up as promised while it was impossible to get through on the company's normal number until late afternoon while the service repair number was out of action.

They began work this Monday but stopped when it rained. She said: "You would think if they didn't finish the job they would return the next day but they didn't."

Engineers failed to turn up on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday The Royal Gazette raised Mrs. Tucker's plight to Mr. Elmas and service was restored last night.

She said: "Probably because the Royal Gazette called they did something."

And she questioned Mr. Elmas's claim that Cablevision crews had been out working the weekend of the storm.

She said: "He said earlier that they don't work weekends. They only get away with this because they are a monopoly"

But she said even power monopoly Belco had managed to restore power to its 22,000 customer within five days while Cablevision were still getting round to their subscribers.

Mr. Elmas said his staff had worked alongside Belco and loaned the power company equipment. He added: "Since our technical staff is much smaller we can't effect the same results."

He said the company had a technician on call 24 hours a day to respond to service outages while crews were out most weekends.

He admitted the company had suffered problems with their new phone system, which he regretted, but he said the system has new customer-friendly features.

Mr. Elmas said: "Currently in response to the recent service outages caused by the storms we have had crews working form early morning to late evening very day of the week including Saturday and Sunday."

The company say technicians have been given global positioning systems to help them locate homes more easily and reduce waiting times. Twelve of the units are in service, said the company, with another seven to be installed within the next two weeks.

Asked about snowy pictures Mr. Elmas said the cable refit would address this.