Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ma­yaro, Rush­ton Paray has said that mo­bile com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) have been se­ri­ous­ly dis­rupt­ed in Ma­yaro and en­vi­rons over the past few weeks, fur­ther iso­lat­ing the com­mu­ni­ties of South­East Trinidad.

TSTT has at­trib­uted the col­lapse of its ser­vice to ca­ble thieves but Paray said the com­pa­ny has not out­lined any mea­sures to im­prove the fa­cil­i­ty and any plans to deal with this most chal­leng­ing is­sue.

"The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has al­so not re­vealed any plans to ar­rest this sit­u­a­tion in a mean­ing­ful way. There are many of­fend­ers, some of whom are brazen­ly op­er­at­ing in broad day­light in pub­lic ar­eas - while re­ports to the Po­lice are met with in­dif­fer­ence. The dis­rup­tion of this cru­cial ser­vice has ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed func­tions and ser­vices at State of­fices, fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er pri­vate sec­tor op­er­a­tions, schools, re­tail fa­cil­i­ties, and re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties," Paray said.

He added that in ad­di­tion to the mo­bile ser­vice break­down, TSTT’s land­line and in­ter­net ac­cess has al­so been im­pact­ed.

In a news re­lease Tues­day, Paray added that the in­dus­try’s reg­u­la­tor, the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, has al­so been silent on the break­down of this vi­tal ser­vice.

"The rup­ture in the tele­com ser­vices has added to the woes ex­pe­ri­enced by res­i­dents of these com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing a weak wa­ter sup­ply, dis­as­trous roads, lim­it­ed em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, a high crime rate, and cost­ly fu­el prices. I have writ­ten to Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Mar­vin Gon­za­les, ex­plain­ing the ex­treme in­con­ve­nience be­ing suf­fered by con­sumers and ask­ing for his im­me­di­ate and ef­fec­tive in­ter­ven­tion," he said, adding, "It is high­ly re­gret­table that the au­thor­i­ties re­main in­ac­tive and in­dif­fer­ent to this com­mu­ni­ca­tions cri­sis."