Days after reports that Surinamese authorities shut down a trans-border microwave data link being used by Digicel Guyana, a senior official at the company has confirmed that the matter is engaging the attention of the company’s legal team.
This is according to Digicel’s Public Relations Manager, Vidya Sanichara. When contacted by Guyana Times, Sanichara declined to comment when asked what steps the company is taking to resolve the matter. However, she promised to update the media at a later time.
GTT is currently the only company in Guyana with an underwater fibre-optic cable, though another local company is reportedly interested in landing a cable of its
The reported shutdown of Digicel’s link with Suriname is now engaging the attention of their legal team
own.
This gives GTT, whose parent company is United States based Atlantic Telenetwork, the capacity to supply connectivity and Internet throughout Guyana. For some time, however, the company has complained about Digicel using a link from Suriname for its data.
The link in question, which has reportedly since been shut down by Surinamese authorities, is said to be behind recent disruptions in Digicel’s service. While Digicel has been silent in an official capacity on the reported shutdown, customers who were inconvenienced reportedly received free data as compensation.
And their main competitor has been addressing the issue. At a press conference on Monday, GTT CEO Justin Nedd had shied away from suggestions his company had a hand in their competitor’s dilemma.
“I do know that they have been working with the operators in Suriname to ensure operations are done in an above-board manner. The Surinamese regulators are doing their job. It’s not unusual for operators and regulators to communicate, but with respect to how they execute their mandate, that’s within their purview.”
Nedd would only admit that GTT has complained about the trans-border link to the Guyana Government. According to Nedd, GTT did not commence or threaten legal proceedings against Digicel.
On the matter of capacity, Nedd had maintained that his company was able to provide the same service to Digicel. He referenced times when GTT itself has provided the network for data services in neighbouring countries.
“I am very confident that we have the capacity and in fact I would like to reiterate that in 2018, we carried all the Internet traffic for Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana. And the network was resilient enough to do it.”
“Because there were outages in Suriname and French Guiana at the same time… given the architecture of the Guyana network, it provided enough utility to carry that traffic. So I don’t believe it’s a matter of capacity and I want to dispel that notion. Our network can handle the traffic,” he had said.
After GTT had raised the issue, the Public Telecommunications Ministry had previously questioned whether GTT had the capacity to provide Digicel with the data service link. Digicel customers have over the past few days been severely affected by the break down, with services like electronic top up no longer available.
