MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands’ customers disenchanted with telecoms provider

Dr.Chris Doyle on his fifth counselling trip to the Falklands

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News update. Headlines: Lack of trust between Cable and Wireless and the customer; Reckless driving: verdict today

Dr Chris Doyle looks at local telecomms issues

GOVERNMENT telecommunication consultant, Dr Chris Doyle is back in the Falklands and has been surprised by the lack of trust customers have in their service provider, Cable and Wireless.

His previous four visits to the Islands, which date back to 2004, highlighted the fact that more regulation of Cable and Wireless by the government was needed and that there was a need for modernisation of the current telecomms law (which dates back to 1988). The government however, has largely failed to implement the recommendations.

In the past this was because the proposed introduction of mobile phones and broadband and the respective tariffs became the focus of discussion, closely followed by replacement of the Camp system which was on the verge of collapse, explained Dr Doyle.

Regulation of Cable and Wireless has been the cause of heated discussion between the Chamber of Commerce and the government.

In March this year the Chamber pulled out of the Telecommunications Consultative Forum set up at their suggestion, because no progress had been made in formalising greater transparency as recommended by Dr Doyle in his 2007 report.

Dr Doyle acknowledged that a high level of distrust appeared to exist between the customer and Cable and Wireless as the provider of a service, that greater transparency was still required by the company and regulation was still inadequate.

Despite long term investments Cable and Wireless are enjoying returns above that which would keep the shareholders happy, said Dr Doyle, and the customer possibly still pays too much for the service received. The quality of service is not subject to independent review, the advanced business service is inadequate and Cable and Wireless still do not supply an annual report to government as was recommended in 2005.

He said however, that it was a difficult time for government, with the rapid change in telecomms in recent years, as well as several changes within government.

It had been particularly noticeable on this visit that the management of the telecomms portfolio in government had been under tremendous strain in the last year or so and all involved are struggling to cope with it.

Looking forward, he said that there are issues in government beyond telecomms and despite the dislike of change, Dr Doyle said he believed the management of telecommunication policy will get better - that it would lead to new legislation and a more structured regulatory environment that does not require him to visit every year.

With some goodwill on the part of various stakeholders, this is an opportunity for it to be thrashed out and dealt with, he said.

One of Dr Doyle’s objectives before he leaves this time, is to identify who is responsible for dealing with the telecomms portfolio on a day to day basis and who has ownership of relevant documentation so that a more consistent pattern than in the past is developed.

Monitoring usage

Monitoring of broadband usage is generally treated with suspicion by customers; however Cable and Wireless have assured Dr Doyle that they have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the system they have in place. He said there is obviously a lack of clarity between the customer and the company as to how and when usage is measured.

Dr Doyle said it seemed to be a recurring problem, but he would be very surprised if there was any deliberate overstating of bills.

There could be mistakes and the system may have problems, which if they do exist, need to be dealt with.

Camp system

With the new Camp telecomms system which takes broadband to the homes of those living outside of Stanley nearing completion, it has been revealed that technical support from the suppliers, of parts of the network will not be available after 2011.

Telecomms is a fast changing world and at the time the system was purchased, Cable and Wireless were assured that support would be in place for the system for a considerably longer time, said Dr Doyle.

It is not the fault of Cable and Wireless and may not cause a problem, he said. It was simply some electronic parts of the system that could go wrong which would not be repairable as anticipated and would have to be replaced. Continued on page 2.

Reckless driving: verdict today

THE verdict in the case of a Stanley teenager who is charged with causing death by reckless driving is expected today.

Senior Magistrate John Trevaskis adjourned the trial of Shaun May (18) yesterday afternoon, to deliberate on his verdict following two days of evidence.

Nineteen-year-old carpenter Jon Felton was killed in the accident which occurred on May 20, 2008. Mr May was the driver of the vehicle in which Mr Felton had been a passenger.

Opening the case on Wednesday morning, the prosecution told the court that a group of youths, travelling in two vehicles, had gone for a drive. In Mr May’s vehicle were Mr Felton and two youths, and in the second vehicle were the car’s owner,Lucas Berntsen, driver Stefen Clarke and two other teenagers.

They drove towards the airport on the Stanley By-Pass road and, according to Crown Counsel Elliott Taylforth, began to “leap frog”, overtaking each other on a number of occasions. At a bend in the road near Surf Bay, Mr May lost control of his vehicle, which left the road and turned over a number of times, finally landing on its wheels. The occupants were not wearing seatbelts, Mr Taylforth said, and Mr Felton was thrown from the vehicle. He was eventually found underneath the vehicle itself and was pronounced dead at the scene. Passengers of the two vehicles - ranging in age from 15 to 19 - were called as witnesses at the trial. They gave conflicting evidence as to the extent of the overtaking which had taken place and to the exact location on the

By-Pass road it had happened, particularly how close to the bend in the road the final overtaking manoeuvre had taken place.

On Thursday morning, defence barrister Michael Hayton addressed the Senior Magistrate on the charge laid before Mr May, arguing that there was no case to answer. He said the charge of causing death by reckless driving alleged that a person was driving in such a manner as to create an obvious and serious risk and that the Crown had not proven this to be the case. Continued on page 3.