Gouveia in the Chronicle news item called for help from GT&T to solve the technical problems besetting the 911 service and said that the phone company needed to work harder at it.
Complaints from residents about poor response from the police force’s 911 number when emergencies arise have been numerous and scathing.
GT&T in its statement yesterday said it viewed with “surprise and disgust” the comments reportedly made by Gouveia.
The Company said it was “extremely disappointed” that the head of the Private Sector Commission, of which GT&T is a member, did not show courtesy by checking with officials of the company before publicly commenting on the situation.
GT&T then listed a series of steps it had taken to help improve service from the emergency number. The phone company said that a few years ago when concerns were raised about the non-functioning of the 911 system at certain locations GT&T and police officials met. They established the critical importance of the service and concurred that any fault in the system would be reported immediately to GT&T and GT&T would treat such as urgent and give priority to repairing it.
Further, three years ago, in 2006, the Police Force engaged GT&T on ways of improving the quality of its 911 service.
“Extensive reviews were done, resulting in individual Police Divisions having upgraded 911 services terminating within those divisions”, GT&T said.
It added “When a year later, the Guyana Police Force, through its Communication Officer, monitored the operational status of its 911 facilities and found them to be defective, GT&T responded immediately and took corrective action to improve the service.”
GT&T said further that recently, the Force approached GT&T for technical advice for the improvement of 911 facilities in the ‘A’ Division. GT&T said it responded positively and its advice has been accepted.
“Those are the facts. That is the information which would have been made available to Mr. Gouveia had he taken the sensible and logical step to contact officials of the Company to establish some balance in his remarks.”
GT&T also noted that on its initiative an Emergency Short Messaging Service was inaugurated two years ago.
The company also said it is astonished that the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission having realized the value of communication has not been more visible and vocal when facilities belonging to GT&T are sabotaged and vandalized placing entire communities at risk.
“All across the country, facilities placed for the convenience of communities, have been deliberately damaged, disrupting service, inconveniencing customers, affecting the viability of businesses and creating a threat to national security.
“It would have been a reasonable expectation for the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, of which the Company is a member, to use his influence to help reduce the criminal acts and to call for the greater protection by the disciplined services in the interest of safeguarding those facilities”, the phone company said.
