Claro, Viva, Tricom and Orange telecoms company executives say that telephone signals in five border provinces are affected by interference from Haitian communications companies.
Orange vice president Eduardo Valcacer, in his role as spokesman for the telecoms companies, said that there was interference in Elias Pina, Jimani, Pedernales, Dajabon and Montecristi.
According to Valcacer, the interference is caused by poor calibration or bad spectrum management by the Haitian communications companies and that all of the Dominican telecoms companies had tried to discuss this with them via email, calls and other methods but nothing had been done.
He asked the Senate to become involved to sort out the problem along the border, which would benefit all their clients as well as those who lived in Haiti.
Valcacer said that they and the other companies had received numerous complaints that affected them both economically and in terms of customer service. He went on to say that in this country the calibration was correct, as was the use of the band spectrum they were allocated, but the Haitian systems were interfering with it.
He said that the only time there was coverage in the border area was after the earthquake when the Haitians telecoms systems were down, but once they were repaired and the antennae were replaced then the interference started again.
Senator Adriano Sanchez Roa is asking the Senate Transport and Telecommunications committee to investigate and solve the issue.
Committee chairman Dr. Jose Rafael Vargas said that the Haitian authorities have told them that they did not have the equipment to sort out the frequencies in the country.
Sanchez Roa, speaking on behalf of the PLD said that although the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) was not represented at the meeting, its involvement was essential so they have asked their president Gedeon Santos to be there next week.
Telefónicas piden Senado intervenga para evitar interferencias de haitianas