GTT says key cable sabotaged three times in nine days

-reward of $1m offered for info

GTT yesterday said that vital telecommunication infrastructure was on July 22, sabotaged for the third time in nine days, affecting over 20,000 customers and it announced a reward of $1m for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

It said that the sabotage put the country’s residents, national security and emergency mechanism at risk, “particularly under the current climate”.

It said that the destruction of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph’s (GTT’s) infrastructure must be seen as an attack on the country’s development.

A reward of $1,000,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator/s.

Reports can be made to GTT’s hotline 0908. Information provided will be treated with the strictest of confidence.

GTT said that on each of the recent occasions, services to the natural resources economic hub of Linden, Ituni, Kwakwani, Mabura, Mahdia, Troy Mining and Bartica communities were affected.

The first act of sabotage, was detected on July 14, a day before GTT officially launched the Blaze fibre optic high speed internet, and GTT says it was not unlike the sabotage the company experienced when it launched high speed LTE broadband in Essequibo, in February of this year.

Over the past twelve months, GTT estimated that the loss of service and the restoration effort equate to $50,000,000. This amount is significantly higher, when the loss of production to businesses is factored in.

Services to the 20,000 customers were restored within 24 hours, on each occasion of the sabotage, GTT said.

It commended the technical team “who work tirelessly to keep our nation connected.”