THE row between the watchdog Public Utilities Commission and the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company Ltd escalated yesterday with the phone company claiming it is being victimized.
“Enough is enough!” it declared.
The war of words was triggered last weekend over a submarine cable project between the local firm and a Suriname company, and intensified in a caustic GT&T statement yesterday.

The new flare-up is now over a cut in the Americas-II cable connectivity on Thursday, which GT&T said was due to road construction in Suriname.

The PUC claimed in a statement Friday that the voice and data services were severely disrupted by the cut in the cable.

The commission said it was informed that there were “significant disruptions to voice traffic – both local and international, and the data transmissions were completely disrupted.”  

It said it is aware that there have been five disruptions between February 5 and June 11 this year, and nine disruptions in 2008, between February 28 and November 25.

“The disruption caused severe interruptions to businesses in the commercial sector, possible financial losses to companies, and may have serious implications to Guyana’s national security,” the commission contended.

It warned that repeated interruptions in the service may force it to recommend to the licensing authority that other providers be issued with licences allowing for international connectivity.

But GT&T yesterday wondered whether the PUC was pulling out all the stops to prevent it from following through on its binding contractual commitments to build the first submarine fibre-optic cable to land in Guyana.

“Why do they seem to want to hinder a project that is crucial to Guyana’s future, a project which GT&T has undertaken at its own cost and risk?  We do not know the answer, but the question needs to be asked.”

The company argued that the PUC’s threat to recommend giving other international licences in violation of Guyana law and GT&T’s license is disturbing. 

“Does this mean that the PUC has given up on the ongoing negotiations between GT&T and the government to obtain GT&T’s consent to relinquish its exclusive franchise at the end of next year? We do not know the answer, but the question needs to be asked.”

GT&T said the PUC’s licensing threat is especially curious, since the commission has no authority to issue an international licence. “Even more curious, giving a licence to other international carriers will not prevent fibre-optic cables from being cut in Suriname, which is what happened in this case.  Nor would giving a licence to other carriers stop unknown parties from engaging in a campaign of dirty tricks against GT&T to sabotage GT&T’s cable facilities in Guyana, which is what also happened in this case.”

It said the cut in the Americas-II cable connectivity on Thursday was repaired in four hours. 

“No voice communications were interrupted, as GT&T has sufficient satellite back-up capacity.  Full data connectivity also was preserved for subscribers whose services included a redundancy feature. No national security issues were raised,” the telephone company said.

In addition, GT&T said its services in Regions Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) and Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice) were interrupted due to an act of sabotage near Loo Creek on the Linden Highway where unknown parties used a chain saw to fell one of GT&T’s riser poles carrying the southern link fibre-optic cable. 

“Is this the beginning of an orchestrated campaign to damage GT&T’s operations and goodwill through planned disruptions in order to make a case for giving another carrier an international license?”

GT&T also noted that the nation has experienced a series of severe electrical outages, and asked where are the PUC’s press releases expressing outrage.

“Why isn’t the PUC threatening to recommend giving licences to new electrical companies?  And what about the sewerage sector?”

GT&T said it has other concerns about the PUC’s public intervention on this matter, which it will raise in an appropriate way and at the proper forum.

The firm said it is building the new cable to ensure that Guyana and its citizens have more reliable access to new high-capacity bandwidth at lower costs than satellite connections offer today. 

“It should be noted that GT&T is funding its portion of the cable system in excess of US$30million, at its own risk,” it said.