All internet and voice services from TeleBermuda International were disrupted for much of today.

The Hamilton-based company deployed its full resources to fix the internal technical issue, and by early this evening it had managed to partially restore some of its voice and data services.

Gregory Swan, president of TBi, apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused by the fault. He said it was the first time the specific technical problem had been encountered by the company.

The company’s internet and voice services went down around 10am. Its website also became unavailable, and the phone lines to its head office were out of operation.

By 7pm, partial service had been restored, at which time Mr Swan said: “We anticipate full restoration later this evening.”

Earlier in the day the company had “all hands on deck” as it worked to identify the root problem that had caused its network to go offline.

External technical support was also brought in to assist with the repair work.

Mr Swan said the problem had not been malware or a broken cable, but was caused by an equipment malfunction at the TBi site.

“It was not the result of anything outside the company. It was an internal issue,” he said.

“This is the first time we have had this issue. We have technical support and expertise on site.”

Because of the total loss of its communications capabilities, the company faced challenges during the day as it tried to notify corporate and retail customers about the issue.

Mr Swan said: “We apologise for the inconvenience caused. We know how important connectivity is to our customers.”