…offering $500k reward for capture of culprits
The Guyana Telephone Telegraph (GTT) is reporting that its cables have again been sabotaged, and the company is offering a reward of $500,000 for the capture of those responsible.
The telecommunications giant has announced that it plans to meet with the relevant ministers of government for discussions on the spate of sabotage plaguing the company.
On September 12 and 13, three hundred (300) metres of cable in the vicinity of New Hope and Friendship on the East Bank of Demerara were cut and removed, affecting voice and data services to more than 400 customers.
“These malicious acts are being conducted by persons who understand the telecoms system, and are bent on impeding the company’s progress for their own selfish gains,” GTT’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Justin Nedd, has said.
“GTT intends to meet with the Minsters of Public Security, Business and Public Telecommunications to holistically address the issue. Engineers and other resources allocated for scheduled works have since been diverted to restore service to the affected customers,” the company said in a press statement.
During a joint press conference with the Public Telecommunications Ministry and GTT on July 26, 2017, Minister Cathy Hughes stressed: “At the end of the day, it is important to recognise that the new telecommunications agency will have the responsibility to issue new licences.”
She was unequivocal in pointing out that, should information be revealed identifying any singular entity as responsible for the sabotage perpetrated on GTT, that entity would be censured when it comes to being granted licences.
The previous success in capturing and prosecuting some saboteurs was made possible through the vigilance of members of the respective communities where the sabotage was being conducted, who acted on appeal of GTT to say something if they saw something, the statement explained.
The first act in the recent series of sabotage was detected on July 14, 2017, one day before GTT officially launched the Blaze fibre-optic high-speed Internet. In February, the company’s fibre-optic cable was also sabotaged at a time when it launched its high-speed LTE broadband in Essequibo.
Over the past 12 months, GTT’s loss of service and restoration effort has equated to $50 million, according to the company.
Twenty-two-year-old Ricky Singh of Lot ‘F’ Grove, East Bank Demerara was in August placed on $350,000 bail upon being arraigned in court and denying that between July 22 and July 24, 2017, at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, he was caught vandalizing and stealing the GTT fibre-optic cable.
Twenty-four-year-old fisherman Sanjay Seecharran of Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara was also recently jailed for three years after confessing to stealing fibre-optic cable from GTT.
