Banks, gov’t agencies could face 10-digit dialling hiccups, FLOW warns

TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER FLOW is warning companies that a number of government agencies, major banks, security companies, and other business are likely to experience disruption of services when 10-digit dialling kicks in next week.

Kayon Mitchell, director of corporate communications and stakeholder management at FLOW, said that despite months of advertising campaigns and messages sent to companies, several are yet to make any preparations for the changeover.

“Given this lack of responsiveness, we anticipate that there is likely to be some disruption to the services that are impacted by the new 10-digit dialling format. For example, some alarm systems, point-of-sale terminals, and PBXs could be negatively impacted if the necessary modifications have not been done. As such, we anticipate that a few major financial institutions, security companies, and government entities will face issues. The general public needs to be made aware of these matters and understand the root cause,” Mitchell stated.

“While we understand how disruptive this change may be for some, FLOW is required to comply with the OUR’s (Office of Utilities Regulation’s) determination and the deadline for implementation. We wish to assure the public that we have taken all necessary steps to minimise disruption to our customers and, by extension, the nation. Post-implementation, we will engage in rigorous ongoing monitoring, and once any issue comes to our attention, we will do our best to resolve same, including looking at what can be done for those entities that did not prepare.” Mitchell continued.

She added that while there are a number of technical companies that can perform system reconfigurations, there could be challenges if the systems have not been tested or validated by FLOW.

“The fact that we were not contacted to collaborate with them indicates that there is possibly a lack of readiness on the part of those entities,” Mitchell said.

FLOW said it is ready for the March 30 switch to mandatory 10-digit dialling.