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Govt urged to reassess CNMI’s vulnerability
The massive communications breakdown in the Commonwealth and its lingering effects should compel the local government to bring this matter to the attention of regulators, according to some lawmakers.
“It is time for the CNMI government to elevate discussions regarding this matter with the Federal Communications Commission, the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, and business stakeholders,” Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) said.
Demapan, who chairs the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Affairs, said that “what occurred is far beyond the loss of Internet access or telecommunications ability.”
“This is a major infrastructure and security crisis that halted the Commonwealth’s capabilities in terms of public and private sector operations, health care services, airlines, and banking services,” he said.
Demapan noted that loss of networking capability “nearly crippled commerce activities and businesses like hotels, stores, and gas station were forced to turn away customers who sought to transact business with the use of credit cards.”
The outage also affected the ability to track typhoons in real time and it incapacitated families from communicating with each other, he said.
GTA
Rep. Joseph “Lee Pan” Guerrero (R-Saipan), meanwhile, confirmed that Guam’s GTA will be coming over to meet with lawmakers this week to discuss the possibility of the communications services provider entering the CNMI.
Guerrero said he had a meeting with a legal counsel from GTA on the possibility.
“IT&E has monopolized [the business] for 30 years. The investors of this company owe the CNMI an explanation,” he said, adding that he fully supports the entry of GTA to the Commonwealth.
He also warned that a class action suit might face IT&E.
“The sad thing is they [IT&E] assured the Senate that they are capable to address this [outage]. But how do you quantify the loss?” he asked.
Guerrero hopes to get some answers from IT&E, which has been summoned to a meeting with lawmakers today. The House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications, chaired by Rep. Francis Taimanao (Ind-Saipan), will convene the meeting.
