Rohee blames GT&T for faulty 911 service

Apr 23, 2014 News

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– Phone company insists it is 24-hr police responsibility

Home Affairs Minister and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Clement Rohee in updating the media on the much complained about 911 emergency number, has cast blame squarely at the feet of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) for calls to that number not being answered.

“As far as I recollect, the GT&T people are not accepting any responsibility or any blame/fault on their part for the 911 number or calls not going through to the police stations or where they ought to be received. I’ve heard many persons telling me – and these are people whom I consider to be credible persons – that they would call 911 and they would hear the ring tone in the phone that they are using, but someone sitting on the other side where the number is supposed to be answered, there is no ringing there.”
“It’s not that there is no one sitting there. I’ve seen the police ranks sitting there and I have seen the photographs also with police ranks sitting waiting to answer the phones… Now that can only be a technical problem, that has to be a technical problem,” Rohee asserted.
He further stressed that the GT&T should explain that “but somehow or the other they are not accepting responsibility for that, so I don’t know who is to accept responsibility for that… not me at least. I am doing my civil duty by calling 911 and the police on the other side are waiting to receive the call, but if between my call and their receipt of it nothing is happening in between, there, that’s clearly a technical problem they have to sort out and that’s one of the issues that the people will have to try to grapple with in dealing with the problem too.”
Just recently the home of a grieving family that had lost a loved one was invaded by bandits while a wake was being kept for the deceased, and the family and other mourners gathered were terrorized and robbed. The family explained that several attempts were made to the 911 number but they got no response. Prior to that, many criticisms were leveled in this regard.
EXPERT REPORT
In March of this year, Rohee had announced that experts were flown in at a cost of US$20,000 to address the inefficient 911 system and had presented a report to him addressing the situation, which he had yet to go through.
At a PPP press conference yesterday, the General Secretary outlined that he had completed the reading of the document/ report, which he deemed as “highly technical”, and said that further advice is needed to make a definitive pronouncement on which way to proceed.
“It is not a policy or political document written for the eyes of a politician so to speak. It is useful for informing the policy maker but then that policy maker has to have additional, local technical advice, and that is what we are seeking to get now… local technical advice on the advice that was given by the foreign experts, so while it might sound as though we are getting advice on advice, I think it is necessary for us to do that.”

Rohee outlined that the report lists three basic approaches – short, medium and long term – each of which has additional costs.
“That is another factor that we have to consider. While it may be necessary, we still have to go deeper into the technical advice being offered in order to ascertain how justifiable are each of those options in respect to the cost they have attached to them, and that is what we are going through right now.”
He explained that one of the options is to integrate all the emergency numbers into 911, that is, Fire, Prison, Police and GPL.
“That is one of the suggested options; to integrate all into one number, but to have dedicated lines so that for example, the person who would be able to answer appropriately to each of those calls, that’s a particular question which they have to sort out.”
The other one, he pointed out, is to go a little further than that, and do a review of the entire system within the country.
“The problem is that there is only one telephone service that we can work with here and that is GT&T, because Digicel, owing to the monopoly that GT&T enjoys, doesn’t provide land line services. So while a person would be able to make a call from a cell phone, the call has to still go through a land line, because the 911 instrument would be a land line, so it would be a call from a cell phone to a land line.”
“WE ARE NOT AT FAULT”
However, the telephone company yesterday responded to Rohee’s statement, categorically stating that it is not at fault. Rather, it is the police who man the facilities on a 24-hour basis with GT&T only facilitating the toll fee lines.
The company called for an urgent investigation and review “of all facts which would highlight all issues associated with 911 services and reported deficiencies of same.”
“It is with grave concern and disappointment that we have noted the reported comments from the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee that “the unresponsiveness of the 911 system is a technical error that GT&T is refusing to accept responsibility for”.
GT&T said it is a service provider which prides itself on its coordination and cooperation with all state entities in particular the nation’s first responders.
“The 911 service is installed and operated like any other landline/fixed service provided by GT&T, the only difference being the use of three digits (911), instead of the standard seven digits. The toll-free 911 facilities that are housed at police stations are manned solely by the Guyana Police Force and their operatives. Hence, GT&T has no responsibility or visibility as to manning levels and indeed whether or not there are GPF personnel tasked with twenty four hours, seven days (24 x 7), 365 day manning of the 911 facilities across the country.”
The company explained that prior to 2006, all calls to the 911 number were answered at the Brickdam Police Station, regardless of which area of the country the calls originated.
“At the request of the Guyana Police Force, GT&T officials met in 2005 with them to review the 911 operation. A decision was taken at the aforementioned meeting that landline calls to 911 be answered at various police stations based on a detailed schedule submitted by the Guyana Police Force.”
GT&T insisted in its statement that this was done.
Georgetown and New Amsterdam are the exceptions, with four dedicated lines each.
“All cell calls, irrespective of where they are made from, are answered at the Brickdam Police Station. GT&T does weekly checks to ensure all lines are technically functional.  GT&T records the answering GPF party once the line is answered during these routine tests. Priority is given to faults detected during tests or complaints reported when the line is answered.”
GT&T said that its checks have revealed with great frequency the disappearance of  handsets  from the termination points of 911 lines at various  Police Stations and the removal of the handset off the hook. It also found that there were no answers by personnel during standard working hours.
“We are aware of the plans by the Ministry of Home Affairs to upgrade their national emergency system, to include police, fire and ambulance services using the 911 facility.  GT&T earlier this year cooperated with their consultant in two rounds of discussions which were essentially data gathering sessions and are awaiting a formal needs/submission summary such that implementation design and costs can be confirmed and addressed based on the consultant’s recommendations and the Ministry’s review of same. As such, it was with great surprise that reportedly the consultants identified “technical faults” as being responsible for 911 calls being unanswered.”
“GT&T, for the record, wishes to also confirm that we are not privy to the consultants’ assessments and conclusion that presumably have been submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
The company made it clear that it wanted this important national security matter to be addressed from a “facts-based perspective” as opposed to “apparent innuendo, misconceptions and false conclusions which we presume have been erroneously supplied to the Honourable Minister, resulting in today’s public release which has potential for public anxiety.”

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