By Eileen Cox
A letter in the Stabroek News of June 13, 2008, brings the curtain down on an experiment by Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Ltd on the Essequibo Coast, Region 2. The letter is captioned ‘The beat of a strange sound from Suddie landline’ and the writer, Mr Baliram Persaud, states:
“The new landline service provided by G/T & T as a replacement for the antenna system in Region No 2 which stretches from Pomeroon to Supenaam is very much defective with customers there including me being ‘fed up’ of making heedless complaints to rectify the situation.
“From the very initial stage and all along for several months now, abounding difficulties which never before existed are being experienced much to the detriment of customers.
“A major problem being encountered is to get a dial tone which is necessary for its use and while this is sometimes possible on some phones, others do not get it at all.
“Even when the dial tone is on calls cannot be made as the ring out tone never comes on but rather the beat of a strange sound is being heard all the time.
“A piece of instrument used in the new service was removed from my home by a technician for ‘programming’but on its return there was no improvement with the same faults recurring.
“Communication is a vital link and it must be of concern to the company as a responsibility for its customers to find an urgent solution.
“It is totally unfair to pay for a service from which no benefit is derived with a 16% VAT included too.”
Complaints were being received that the new system was not working. There was a wireless system on the Essequibo Coast with two subscribers sharing one antenna. When Guyana Power & Light had an outage the telephone functioned with the use of batteries installed in them. However, over time the batteries became useless and subscribers had no telephone service during a blackout.
GT&T then introduced a new system in November last year and required residents to pay a total of nearly $14,000 for the service, contributing $1000 per month with Value Added Tax.
When this new system was introduced I learnt that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had sanctioned the contribution by residents. I deduced that it was therefore legal. I now learn that there was no hearing and the PUC did not sanction the collection of a contribution from residents.
This new system, as we see in the writer’s letter, has failed and no contribution is now collected by GT&T. However, it seems clear that, without the PUC’s approval, all contributions paid by residents should now be refunded. GT&T should also be rapped on the knuckles for not adhering to the provision in the Public Utilities Commission Act 1990, which does not allow the company to charge customers without the approval of the PUC.
In the late l990s GT&T introduced a surcharge on subscribers to recapture the money which it claimed it had lost when Mr Menon, the PUC Chairman, introduced the off-peak system, with rates being cut in half from 18 h to 6 h next day, at weekends and on public holidays. The company used a simple method of calculation simply doubling the off-peak calls made during the period and doubling the money to be collected. The company never took into consideration that subscribers would take advantage of the lower rates and make longer and more frequent telephone calls to friends and family.
The Consumers Advisory Bureau appealed to the High Court and Justice Claudette Singh ruled in favour of the consumer body ordering GT&T to refund the money collected.
GT&T then went to the Appeal Court and obtained a ruling in its favour. The three judges in the Appeal Court ruled that GT&T was entitled to recoup the money it had lost and paid no attention to the provision in the act that required GT&T to obtain the sanction of the PUC for any charge on subscribers.
This was a terrible blow to consumers, even those who were new subscribers as GT&T collected millions of dollars through the surcharge.
Now again, GT&T seems to have acted unilaterally. We wait to see what action will be taken by the PUC to compensate Essequibo residents for the money they have lost.
