GTT CEO promises reduced fault reports with new fibre optic cable

Sep 09, 2017 News

GTT’s CEO, Justin Nedd

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), Justin Nedd has said that the implementation of its new fibre optic cable will reduce the amount of fault reports received by the company.
Nedd gave this assurance to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) during a hearing on Thursday last, whereby GTT officials were allowed to present their case for a review of PUC Order 2 of 2017.
The PUC order that was granted on June 9, 2017, gave GTT the permission to apply increased landline metered rates. However, to apply those new rates, the PUC had asked GTT to satisfy three conditions.
One of those conditions has to do with the Commission finding that GTT has been tardy in its response time and remedial actions with respect to fault reporting. As such, the Commission requested a quarterly report from the date the rates take effect, showing details of the average time taken to resolve consumers’ complaints.
Addressing the PUC on Thursday, Nedd said that once the new technology is put in place, many of the faults will go away. He said that with the new technology, GTT will be able to proactively detect when something is wrong with the system.
“So it will be easier to fix and it’s easier to detect. I anticipate that most of the fixing will be done by people sitting in the office.”
He added that there will be the random occurrences whereby a motorist may drive into the cabinets that house telecommunication cables.
He said that this will pose a problem, however the issue relating to the saturation of cables with water when it rains will reduce.
“The things like the saturation of our cables with water when the rain falls and you see the guys in a big hole and digging it up and doing the splicing pair by pair, and it’s a thousand pair cable and they are working through the night…some of that will just disappear.”
Further, Nedd said that GTT, without the intervention of the PUC or any other entity, has a vested interest in fixing the faults and doing so quickly. He added that the company has employed a task force to quickly reduce the faults.
Nedd said that over the last month and a half, the company was able to reduce faults from 8,032 outstanding as of the end of July 2017 to 5,572 at the end of August 2017. He said that GTT expects the current number to drop significantly.
The company had suggested addressing the faults by applying an international zoning category procedure. Three zones were identified, urban, suburban and hinterland areas.
To respond to faults in those areas, the company said that it will take four to five days for urban areas, five to seven in suburban areas and 15 to 30 days for hinterland areas.
The hearing on Thursday was adjourned and will resume on Wednesday September 13, 2017 at 12:30hrs at the PUC Conference Room, New Garden Street, Georgetown.

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