By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterRESIDENTS OF the Rae Town community in Central Kingston have renewed their protest against disturbance in cellular phone services in the area, as a result of Government's use of security jammers at the nearby Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility.
Syron Wilmot, who lives in the area, told The Gleaner that the problem, which was first brought to the fore in December last year, has yet to be properly rectified. Mr. Wilmot and a number of other residents said they have been unable to make calls from their mobile phones while at their Potter's Row and Rae Street addresses, to name a few, ever since the jamming equipment was erected at the penitentiary.
"Ever since they put up the pole we having problems," Mr. Wilmot said, in reference to what he believes to be the signal jammer. A number of other residents, including a woman who identified herself as Claudine, corroborated Mr. Wilmot's observation.
The residents with whom The Gleaner spoke said the phones primarily affected are those within the Digicel network. However, Mr. Wilmot claimed, the other two networks, Cable and Wireless and Centennial, are also affected at times. "I've made numerous calls to the relevant authorities and the situation has not changed. Do we have to resort to blocking roads to get some form of attention on the matter?" Mr. Wilmot asked.
He said that when he and others called both Cable and Wireless and Digicel they were told that the Government, rather than the companies, would have to deal with the issue.
Digicel Marketing Manager Harry Smith said that he was unaware that the problem had resurfaced. "I was intimately involved in the situation in December," he said, explaining that the issue led to a meeting between the Government and the three service providers. He explained that a solution had been arrived at but, as the issue was a matter of national security, the decision was taken to avoid public exposure.
"I will have to check this out," he said, stating that it is unreasonable to expect the customers to accept a diminished service.
Donovon Nelson, Communications Adviser at the Ministry of National Security, said that he was not aware of the current problems.
Senator Kern Spencer, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry, had announced in November last year that the Government had purchased cellular phone jammers to block inmates from making illegal direct calls from inside the prison. He said that the Government intended to spend $8.9 million in obtaining the equipment. The jammers, he said, would have been installed by December 2002.
In December, though, residents living near to the Tower Street centre began experiencing difficulties with their phones. The problems were attributed to the introduction of the blocking equipment to the prison. Government has since been tight-lipped about the jammers.
The Government's installation of cellular telephone jammers was intended to block calls between inmates at the Tower Street Correctional Centre and their cronies on the outside. According to the Ministry of National Security, as many as 250 cellular phones were found inside the institution by warders last year.
