Hay THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has given Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) a week to provide "specific" information on the nature of the problems being experienced by its cellular customers.
Winston Hay, director general at the OUR, says the company must state, within that time period, how the problems are being addressed. The one-week ultimatum started on Thursday.
Despite the long-standing problems with its cellular network, Mr. Hay said he felt a week was necessary to give the company time to "find the information".
The request is contained in a letter from the OUR, which has expressed its dissatisfaction at the poor quality of service C&WJ's mobile customers have had to put up with over the years. The situation came to a head on Monday when the company's vice-president for mobile, Steve Twomey, was sent on administrative leave after the system crashed over the weekend leaving thousands of mobile users without the service. It had collapsed four days earlier and the company gave the assurance the worst had passed.
The OUR has also asked C&WJ to submit the names of three competent consultants to investigate the problems plaguing its cellular network and to review its plans to correct them. It has two weeks to come up with the names, after which the OUR will decide which of the three will undertake the investigation. The cost will be borne by C&WJ.
Following last weekend's disruption, the OUR, often accused of being soft on the telecom giant, warned that its cellular licence could be suspended if the matter was not fully sorted out within three months. Mr. Hay told The Gleaner on Tuesday, that the poor service being offered by C&W was a breach the Telecommunications Act. He pointed out that the company was possibly in breach of the Fair Competition Act for advertising services it had failed to deliver at a satisfactory level.
The OUR head on Tuesday questioned whether C&W could be taken at its words in terms of the pronouncements it has made, about upgrading the network to adequately serve its more than 350,000 customers. He pointed to press advertisements last weekend which indicate a new switch processor was installed in April, increasing call carrying capacity by 250 per cent.
"We don't know of anybody who has seen any improvement from the introduction of that," Hay said. He explained that the appointment of a consultant to probe the matter would bring some objectivity to the situation.
"They talk a lot about their investment plan, but we haven't been seeing the benefits of these investments," Hay said yesterday. He is hoping the consultant will be able to determine whether the multinational has adopted the correct approach in its quest to solve the ongoing problems.
