Guyana continues to experience the single most vigorous marketing rivalry in the country’s commercial history as the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and its rival cellular service provider, DIGICEL, continue their unrelenting rivalry for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local cellular market.

Several weeks ago DIGICEL raised the decibel level of the rivalry by calling for an end to the international dialing monopoly currently enjoyed by GT&T under an existing contract with the Government of Guyana, GT&T has responded by charging in its advertising campaign that DIGICEL is guilty of publicly encouraging the government to break its contract with GT&T, a charge which the Irish-owned cellular service provider denies.

Earlier this week a DIGICEL spokesman told Stabroek Business that while the company is far from unmindful of the sanctity of contracts it believes that the liberalization of the telecommunications sector is sufficiently important to make the monopoly ‘a public issue.’

According to the DIGICEL official ‘liberalization is an issue that is as important to the consuming public as it is to the Guyana economy as a whole. We believe that it is entirely appropriate that an issue be made of liberalization,” the spokesperson said.

GT&T Chief Executive Officer Major General (retd) Joe Singh has repeatedly stated that Atlantic Tele Network, GT&T’s parent company, is prepared to discuss the monopoly with government.

Stabroek Business is aware that GT&T has written to both President Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds on the monopoly issue. DIGICEL is contending, however, that as the monopoly holder. GT&T must begin by “putting something on the table” rather than simply saying that it is ready to talk,

DIGICEL has also rejected charges which it says GT&T have made that the Caribbean-wide cellular service provider is unmindful of decisions made by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on matters of rate setting. The DIGICEL spokesman told Stabroek Business that the company had ‘no difficulty” with the rates agreed by the PUC. “What GT&T must do is propose lower rates to the PUC so that those lower rates can benefit cellular users.

In response to comments made by DIGICEL regarding the profits made by its rival in the cellular market, GT&T has said that over time it has invested heavily in its local land line buildout.

Two weeks ago Stabroek Business met with several top GT&T officials including Deputy General Manager Terry Holder and Customer Services Director Pamela Briggs for a briefing on the company’s land line service which Holder said had transformed the face of Guyana.