Leon James Suseran, in a letter to the Stabroek News of January 11(‘Utility companies earned a failing grade in 2009’), has listed GT&T among the utility companies which have all earned a big fat F-grade for the manner in which they provided service to the people in 2009.
The other utilities will no doubt speak for themselves. But GT&T takes issue with his grading and would wish to correct some of the misconceptions which he obviously holds.
Mr Suseran’s main concern with GT&T is with the occasional breakdown or degradation of its communication service which “not only affects telephone but also Internet platforms throughout the coast and interior… Contact within the nation and out of the nation becomes severely downgraded and even non-existent at times.” It is a concern that is justified, as he makes the point that telecommunication is an essential service.
Among the company’s shortcomings in 2009, he says, were the too frequent failures of the Americas II Fibre Optic Submarine Cable which is a vital link between Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana and the Internet platform. Mr Suseran comments fleetingly on the sabotage of the company’s underground cables, although he does concede that GT&T is not wholly to be blamed for the failures.
GT&T has explained again and again and emphasized and re-emphasized that these failures have been beyond the control of the company. We have shared the frustration of the business, residential and other consumers at the inconvenience caused to them. We have commented on the frustration of having to redeploy resources to restore services and of having to lose revenue as a result of the disruptions.
Mr Suseran would know of our expressed dissatisfaction over the reliability of the Americas II service, of our stated intention to provide an alternative and of the realization of that alternative with last Saturday’s shore-end landing of a US$62 million submarine cable, guaranteeing significant reliability and expansion.
The charge by Mr Suseran which concerns us most, though, is the suggestion that “GT&T does not properly inform customers and Internet Service Providers as to the true nature and extent of problems when they arise.”
“Why hide certain things?” he asks mischievously.
Well, the simple answer is that it is not GT&T’s policy to keep information about service from our consumers. It is not only as a courtesy that we advise customers about facilities. It is an obligation to the customer which we take very seriously. We must let Mr Suseran know that there is an escalation policy within GT&T which demands that every time there is a failure, the report is made first to the technical crews which must effect repairs and restoration, then to the Public Relations Department for relay to the public. The staff in our call centres are also briefed since this is where consumers also turn to for information whenever there are disruptions.
Once the report is received a member of the PR team would make contact with the electronic media (radio and television) and arrange for notices to be aired periodically.
It may be that Mr Suseran, regrettably, never heard or saw the notices. But the fact is that the messages were sent.
To address the Yahoo issue, GT&T’s Internet division, based on feedback from customers, via our call centres, found that a few subscribers were observed to have intermittent access issues to the popular e-mailing service. The complaints were first received on December 28, 2009 and our technical personnel began an immediate investigation. Research revealed that this issue was not experienced by all subscribers (less than 1%) neither was it confined to any identifiable section of broadband customers. GT&T contacted the technical representative of the web service company, and notified them of the problem. Every effort was made to have a prompt resolution of the issue and on January 7, 2010, based on referenced customers, there was no longer any evidence of this problem. We continue to monitor based on information received from customers in reference to any issue they may have regarding access to any service. About failing to provide service in 2009, we can list GT&T’s achievements during the year – we can talk about the further roll-out of our landline service, the growth and expansion of cellular, the extension of the remote area service giving communication access and making life easier for residents in the far flung communities of Guyana.
We can list those achievements and ask how, in any reasonable assessment, Mr Suseran can give GT&T a failing grade in 2009?
Yours faithfully,
Allison Parker
PRO
GT&T
