Angry Customers Besiege GT Premises

A group of angry customers last Wednesday mounted a demonstration against Ghana Telecom for poor services which had worsened over the past few months.

Workers at the Customer service point had to lock themselves up in the offices to avoid the wrath of the angry demonstrators.

A spokesman for the customers, Kwame Karikari, told the Chronicle that GT officials had always given excuses without making any effort at addressing their problems.

The demonstrators complained that most phone booths in the city were not functioning yet GT kept on selling phone cards to the public even though they could not use.

He said it was increasingly becoming difficult for one to get through with a single call without dialing and redialing a number several hours.

The regional head of GT, Nana Tannor, has however, attrbuted the situation to the increase in the number of people who use the telephone facility.

The introduction of the pre-paid card had also increased accessibility of telephone to a larger public. The situation where one person used a minimum of three units is past. Today an individual could use about 50 nits in a single call, Nana Tannor explained.

Another factor which has added to the jam of the lines is the springing up of Internet cafes.

Nana Tannor, however, said GT would soon come out with a new design to deal with the situation.

Meanwhile, GT is revising its directive regarding the operation of communication centres in containers and kiosks.

He said 95% of such operators had met GT standard requirements of operations and that the company was working out options for the remaining 5% for compliance.

He said GT had to issue the directive as a revenue mobilisation strategy and that all monies owed GT will be retrieved.

Last year GT directed that the running of communcations centres in containers will be stopped by March, this year, because GT found it difficult to collect bills from these temporary structures.

With the imptrovement in the payment of bills the directive would have to be reconsidered, the Regonal Head assured.