One bothersome example is TSTT

THE EDITOR: After spending the past six years studying and working in Canada, I have returned with the intention of re-establishing myself and making the best contribution that I can. For anyone who has spent lengthy periods abroad, it would be easy to understand when I say that the transition upon return is difficult. There are so many differences and such a magnitude of things that seem incorrect that I have to make public one particularly bothersome example — TSTT. Of necessity, I am now spending all of my waking time on the phone, on the road and on the Internet. The insanity that passes for driving, and the unbelievable degree of ultra-centralisation of Port-of-Spain with its accompanying traffic gridlock and other consequences are topics for another time.

Tell me something, TSTT — why did you bother to publish 824-8788 as your contact number? I have been here for six weeks now and have never heard a live human voice when I called that number over and over on almost every business day that I have been back. Your circuits are busy so I should try to call later, the recording says. Guess what, there is no “later” because that recording is active only between 8 am and 4 pm. Outside of those hours, another recording takes over, informing me of the times that I will be allowed to hear the 8-to-4 automation. I therefore wonder what is the purpose of 824-TSTT, since it delivers as much as would a telephone number that is advertised to enable conversations with a leprechaun, the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.

Continuing with your toothpick infrastructure supporting enormous telecommunications offerings, what’s the deal with activating more mobile phones than you can handle? I had asked the owner of the borrowed cell phone that I am using if there was equipment failure because of the number of times that I tried to place a call and received a “Call ended — redialling” message in the display. She casually said that her phone was fine, but because of system congestion I need to keep trying until I get connected. Of course, it would be grossly unfair to compare TT with Canada, so I expect differences in scale, but not in intelligence. What is the rationale for the excessive activations? It is as sensible as selling thousands more tickets than there are seats for a cinema movie, and produces frustrated subscribers just as there would be distressed ticket-holders in the cinema analogy.

But hold on, let’s look at this in its reality. Almost all of the activations I have encountered were for pre-paid service. Now it starts to make sense and belongs in one of my textbooks as a case study. At time zero (now), I pay — only cash or debit card being accepted — to top-up my available balance. TSTT receives that money immediately but I get nothing until time plus x (some time in the future). Multiplied by the number of active accounts, you have received considerable revenue without a matching provision of service, so your financial position at any point in time is cash-rich.

No wonder you have always declared such huge after-tax profits in your published financial statements. Your monopoly provides a guaranteed market, so you can continue to receive money for a service that you do not have to provide. Oh what a great economic position in which to be. Since you will only transact with the individual in whose name your services are registered, I have to take my aged mother into your service centres regularly. I accept that your registered-person-only policy is for both our security, but since 824-TSTT is no more than ink on a page, it is an unfortunate amusement that we have to visit your service centres more than once for the same matter each time, take a number and wait to be called simply to obtain an update because the time-frame that was given by your representative has come and gone.

Regarding your Internet offering, I want the high-speed option but I am genuinely curious about why transmissions operate at about one-quarter the speed of true ADSL (500 vs. your 128), therefore resembling the much slower ISDN standard even though you use ADSL modems and refer to your service as ADSL on your Web site. Your webmasters should not use an upper-case B in describing ADSL speeds — they are capable of Kilobits, not KiloBytes per second. Is your inability to offer ADSL service another example of limited infrastructure for indeterminate demand? With the sort of revenues you secure, I doubt that the issue is finance, especially since you lock subscribers into contracts for up to three years only for them to find out that you set a legitimate expectation of ADSL, only to deliver a quarter of that. Would you accept payment of a quarter of your monthly invoice?
Why is there no viable competition in the telecommunications sector? TSTT, you have worn me down so I surrender. Tomorrow my mother and I will once more take a number and wait to be called to be given another installation date that never comes.

ASHLEY FERRERIA
St Augustine