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‘Internet tourism’: Tinian businesses benefit from Saipan network outage
TINIAN—Unlike the many businesses on Saipan that were and are being negatively affected by the islandwide network outage and inadequate Internet services since July 8, commerce on Tinian has actually benefitted from it.
For almost three weeks now, Saipan has been struggling with negligible Internet connection, rendering some businesses such as Internet cafés useless.
As a result, Tinian experienced what Mayor Joey San Nicolas called “Internet tourism.” The island has suddenly become the place to be for Saipan residents who have extreme need for Internet and are willing to shell out $70 for the airfare just to have better access.
According to Lot Bunao of J.C. Café Restaurant, she noticed an increase of customers these past days. Lawyers and businessmen were among those who have been frequenting their place.
“We had customers that stayed here in the restaurant because they wanted to use the Internet. They didn’t even stay in hotels,” Bunao said. “Some even just stayed in the airport because all they need is to use the Internet.”
Despite being initially affected by the network outage, Tinian wasn’t as badly impacted as Saipan with regards to Internet connectivity and capacity. Even 4G connections on Tinian were restored “immediately” when compared to Saipan’s restoration.
Lorilynn Hotel also saw an increase in guests the past week, according to Digna, one of their employees.
For San Nicolas, they indeed gained something from Saipan’s limited Internet capacity.
“Agencies and businesses have come to Tinian to take advantage of our Internet here and we, of course, allow them to come into our office and use our WiFi or anywhere else within the island,” San Nicolas said.
He added that they welcomed those who came for help.
“We were very sad that the CNMI had to endure that, but very good for Tinian because we actually had more people coming to Tinian for that single purpose of using the Internet,” San Nicolas said. “We’re just being good neighbors.”
