New Timor Telcom phone system beset by teething troubles

Dili, March 7 (Lusa) - A week after entering into service, East Timor's new telephone system, operated by Timor Telecom (TT) and controlled by the Portugal Telecom group, is experiencing a number of technical problems and peak-hour congestion.

A senior TT manager told Lusa that "there are still problems to rectify" and explained traffic on the new network, which came into service March 1, was "more than expected".

Timor's telecommunications minister, Ovidio Amaral, said it would be "unfair" to evaluate TT's performance after such a short operation period.

The main difficulty faced by Timorese phone and internet users is getting a dialing tone when making both local and international calls.

A TT spokesman said many international operators had still not reconfigured their systems to link to the new network. Until Feb. 28, the Timorese system had been operated by the Australian telecoms firm, Telstra.

ASP/CJB Lusa

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