Plagued by the persistent theft of its insulated copper cable that serves as the vehicle for taking telephone services to consumers and having failed to bring a halt to the practice through the intervention of either the police or its own internal security force, the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) has disclosed that it will now be turning to the consuming public in an effort to rein in the copper thieves.
Stabroek Business has learnt that the country’s sole fixed wire telephone service provider will shortly be launching a public information initiative designed to recruit the support of residents in those areas where a high volume of cable thefts has been recorded in recent years.
A GT&T source told Stabroek Business recently that the company hopes that it can persuade the public to play a more central role in protecting “what is in fact a public resource.”
GT&T has made continued police reports and official protests over the sustained theft of its copper-insulated cable, a practice which has been attended by the vandalizing of the telephone infrastructure. GT&T says that most of the acts of vandalism occur in the Georgetown area and that the vandals have been targeting telephone installations in the north and south Georgetown areas.
GT&T has said that the frequency of the cable theft and the attendant vandalism has cost the company tens of millions of dollars and has slowed down its telephone service buildout.
As the practice has become more pronounced fingers have been pointed at the local scrap metal industry which places a high premium on copper as an export commodity. In 2006, following a spate of copper thefts and further official reports by GT&T Prime Minister Samuel Hinds – whose portfolio includes public utilities – cracked down on the largely unregulated scrap trade. In the process the utility companies were authorized to inspect consignments of scrap prior to export and, subsequently, a ban was placed on all scrap exports.
While the official prohibition on scrap exports appeared to have resulted in reduced cable theft GT&T officials have noted that the recent partial removal of the ban on scrap exports has resulted in a fresh spate of cable thefts. GT&T estimates that in recent weeks the cost of replacing the stolen cable and repairing the damaged infrastructure totaled more than $10m.
The Company has long come to terms with the fact that it is impossible to police the hundreds of miles of cable that take telephone services to its consumers and that the thieves have now become sufficiently clever and sophisticated to reduce the apprehension rate to almost zero.
Cable thieves go to extraordinary lengths including climbing telephone poles – and, in one case, pulling down a pole – to access the copper and GT&T now appears to have taken the position that the responsibility for ensuring the security of the cable ought to be shared by those who benefit from the telephone service.
A senior GT&T official noted recently that the removal of a single length of insulated copper cable theft can sometimes “take out” up to 400 telephone services as well as data services. The official noted that the impact on businesses has been particularly severe.
So systematic have the thieves become that there have been instances in which they have struck at the same location more than once in a matter of days and sometimes even before work has been completed to repair the original damage.
While sources in the scrap metal industry have conceded that there are links between cable thieves and some scrap dealers, those sources have noted that the spate of recent thefts are probably connected to the illegal scrap trade which sees metal being moved across the country’s borders and some of it reportedly reaching as far as Asia. One official told Stabroek Business that while copper is a high-priced non ferrous metal, the official ban on non-ferrous exports was still in place and that the current spate of copper thefts may therefore be connected to the trans-border illegal trade.
While charges have been brought against some persons for copper theft offences a company official told this newspaper that what may be needed may be a heightened sense of public awareness of the damage done by cable theft to the local telephone infrastructure and, by extension, to the country’s economy.
GT&T Chief Executive Officer Major General (ret’d) Joe Singh has said repeatedly that the company’s investment in the country’s land line service reflects its commitment to the development of an infrastructure that is critically connected to the long-term development of the country.
GT&T is yet to provide details of its new strategy that seeks to ‘recruit’ members of the public to help reduce the incidence of copper theft. Stabroek Business understands, however, that the new approach may enable members of the public to access a “quick response” facility that could enable the authorities to catch the thieves in the act or to trace them to areas where the cable is burnt to strip it of its insulation.
Meanwhile, Stabroek Business understands that thieves are also targeting another type of cable used in GT&T installations. A company source said instances of theft of the cable had been recorded in the Campbellville area and that GT&T was of the view that the thieves may be using the cable in the provision of electricity to homes.
