AN act of vandalism in which 480 feet of Fibre Optic Cable belonging to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GT&T) was destroyed early on Thursday morning, temporarily disrupted telephone and data services of several important entities, several households businesses, and even the country’s main international airport.

Paradoxically, the cable which the vandals took away can be of no use to them, since there was no copper in the cable, but rather another kind of material, which is useless.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle at the site where the crew responded and carried out works, Rawle Peters of the GT&T Engineering Department disclosed that the company was not alerted to the cable disruption by any incoming calls, but after the cable had been compromised an alarm at one of the GT&T exchange stations was triggered, and the team responded by using an internal map of its cables to pinpoint the exact location of the cable disruption.
He said the cable disruption has resulted in the company being forced to abandon scheduled cable replacement works which were planned for yesterday along the path of the East Bank Demerara four-lane extension.
While not divulging details of the initial cost to the company brought on by the damage, Peters told this newspaper that the company has to take into consideration the cost for the damaged cable, the down time by the workers, and the use of equipment and other resources.

As a result of the works which are classified as emergency, the phone company had to respond with teams from its engineering, construction and maintenance departments.
GT&T Public Relations Officer Alison Parker told this newspaper that one of the real issues to which people pay very little attention in respect to cable damage is the security aspect.
She said that in disrupting the cables, what needs to be considered is the impact on the ability of the community, businesses, and in yesterday’s case the airport, to respond to emergencies and make emergency contacts with the relevant authorities and agencies.

Parker called on the communities to report damage to cables which they may witness, and pointed out that the company will treat those reports with the strictest of confidentiality.

Also present at the site yesterday was Nadia De Abreu, who also works in the Public Relations Department of the phone company.