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GT&T blames internet disconnection on cut submarine cable

Nov 07, 2013 News

 

Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) has blamed a half-day nationwide disruption in internet service and international calls on its undersea cable, located 277 kilometres off the coast.
The communications company apologized unreservedly to its thousands of customers who awoke yesterday morning to find difficulty in connecting to the internet and making calls overseas because the marine cable connecting Guyana and neighbouring Suriname had been cut by unexplained circumstances.
The company which has a monopoly on international telephone traffic said in a statement that, “customers experienced intermittent failure in all International traffic and the internet during the day. The damage also affected the main fiber optic path out of Guyana.”
Government departments, private companies, small businesses and the hundreds of cheap internet cafes which litter urban areas were forced to remain idle until both services were restored after midday. It was noted also that the prolonged outage was a result of disruptions also detected in the back-up system.
The GT&T and Suriname’s state-owned Tele Sur, had about three years ago joined in a US$60M upgrade of the underwater cable system.
The disruption occurred a day before the 65-member parliament is due to debate a bill breaking the firm’s monopoly and allowing space for other providers like Irish-owned Digicel.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told Kaieteur News yesterday that he would welcome a completion of the amendments to the Telecommunications Bill and Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act, while he is prepared to lead the second reading on the matter today.
The two Bills are slated for debate and a subsequent vote. The matter has however been deferred on several occasions with the government asking for time to carry out further consultations.
Communications giant-Digicel which credits itself with bringing down the cost of handsets and slashing by half, local rates in its six years of operations here, has argued that its ability to generate a better profit is stymied by the telecommunications monopoly.
The company has especially been prevented from offering international services.
Inbound and outbound calls through Digicel’s network are routed through GT&T, since the company is the only one with an international licence in the telecommunications sector.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gregory Dean told Kaieteur News yesterday that the company is still awaiting a speedy passage of the amendment. The company had lauded a High Court ruling which upheld its challenge against the monopoly on international services in Guyana since 1990.
Following the last Caribbean nation’s doing away with international monopoly in June of last year, Guyana is said to be the last country in the region to allow an international monopoly to persist.

 

 

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