Dear Editor,
Recently it has come to my knowledge that Guyana is amongst a few of the world’s countries, which have banned VOIP. VOIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, also called telephony, is a very cheap way of long distance voice communicating. It is different from Instant Messaging, (IM). It is all done by the use of computers, and therefore communication can be very cheap or free, but unlike IMs the communicators do not have to have IMs, and can talk phone to phone also. This reduces greatly the revenues of monopolistic land line phone companies. In a few of the poorest countries of the world, governments have moved to ban this technology.
It is a very short-sighted thing for any government in a country like Guyana to do. VOIP is an example of scientific innovation at its best. It is not something that governments in small countries which hope to develop should try to stifle. It makes me remember the days of Forbes Burnham, who did not allow TV stations in Guyana for years. What nonsense that was. Guyana needs tremendous economic help. Not only in the form of Western Union transfers and barrels to individuals, but greater help in the form of flourishing business activity.
Quick, fast and cheap and reliable communications is a path to robust business activity.
India is no longer a developing economy, but a developed economy in big part because many Western businesses, especially many American businesses, find it cheap and easy to communicate from India. So they outsource to India for much of their communicating needs. It is made cheap and possible by VOIP.
VOIP has brought billions of dollars and millions of jobs to the Indian economy.
Over the past forty or so years, governments in Guyana have been showing a special talent for absurd decisions. The decision to ban VOIP seems to be the most absurd.
For the good of the Guyana economy, I want to implore the Guyana government to change this particular decision.
Yours faithfully,
Lennox Wellington
The problem is that the main ISP, GT&T, has been blocking the ports used for VoIP.. They’ve also implored other methods to accomplish this as well. GT&T is a private company that has made that decision in the best interest of their shareholders.
The Government has nothing to do with it (they should), so it’s wrong to say they banned it. In fact, many of the Wireless ISPs offer a VoIP solution in Guyana.
Also according to a friend GT&T may have recently changed their policy regarding this. But I cannot confirm.
Thanks Bro…if this is the case then the govt need to be more integrated in the policy making of these private companies.GT and T has,for too long, had a strangle-hold monopoly in the communications’ market with no benefits extended to the very wide and dependent consumers.
OUR GOVT SHOULD HAVE POLICIES THAT PROVIDE FOR POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONSUMERS SATISFACTION.Everybody gets a free ride in Guyana but Guyanese.
Correct me if I am wrong if I rember the Gov’t Have about 20% ownership of GTT.
If this is correct then they are protecting each other.
This should be in letter section.
2 questions – Isn’t the ‘Yap-Jac’ a VoIP service? 2. is that now restricted by GT&T?
I may be wrong, but YapJack is PPP (point to point protocol) and is designed for dial-up connections only. The various dial-up providers may have agreements with GT&T to allow it on their networks.
But YapJack doesn’t work with DSL. VoIP would be along the lines of Skype & Vonage.
You can also checkout this business article, GT&T sent out a couple of months ago. Although littered with a bit of company proproganda, it does have some facts about the state of internet infrastructure in Guyana.
http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=5358
This is important enough to stay where it is, enough though it was a letter.
I cannot wait for this monolithic ape called GT and to disappear from Guyana.
They installed some wireless garbage on the Essequibo Coast through which no international call can be made. Thus, even when they pursue so called improvement, they are basically spreading their tentacles of ineptitude.
Let GUyanese have freedom of choice with VOIP.
Off topic – peoplefedup where on “The Rock” are you? never thought I’d see another Guyanese on The Rock posting here.
Jamoon “On the Rock” as in Gibraltar – nah its Bermuda!
As for the VOIP issue, GTTC regs and agreement with the Government “of the day” was that they had rights to all calls in and out of Guyana – but that was of course when there was no internet, but they still have the right to block VOIP on their networks by law – unfortunately.
I thought this was the letter section??!!
I don’t understand why they would ban VOIP. This is an excellent technology.
I recommend every Guyanese to start Using Skype. If they want to block ports use a proxy server.
Well well, my old country goes absurd again. I watched the Newscast where Mr. Luncheon took his time to explain that GRA will be investigating ‘illegal’ Internet Cafes. I do realize that we all need to pay taxes, but the conditions that exists in Guyana forces one do almost anything for survival! This little
Well well, My old home country with its absurdities again…The move by GT&T to block VOIP calls should be illegal, but we’re talking about Guyana here right? lol. It is quite clear that ‘Internet cafes’ don’t use GT&T service to operate, they use wireless connections! The home user is penalized for this instead…how absurd!
This is a place when you want a drivers license you must pay the Police, even when the conditions that exist warrant no such thing! apart from it being illegal to do so! I watched the Newscast where Mr. Luncheon slowly and carefully explained that as a result of ‘illegal Internet cafes’ ’springing-up’ all over the country that the Government is losing revenue and as a result GRA will investigate and take appropriate actions. I wonder about the Police taking bribes and Customs officers helping Businessmen to evade correct and exact taxes? lol i guess they don’t lose revenue from that eh?
The government owns part of GT&T, i think 20%. So they are now moving in a very subtle way again to add more pressure and stress to the life of struggling Guyanese, VAT WAS NOT ENOUGH! This is exactly the problem in Guyana! This is the reason for drug rings and a host of other illegal businesses. And yet my former country’s leaders tell the international community and unsuspecting foreign diplomats and also caucasion tourists that everything is okay here. They claim that Guyana is not corrupt and gives examples of how well they can account for grant money and loans that they receive from monetary agencies and donor agencies. What trash!!! of course they will handle those monies with care…they are not stupid!
Yang Chang
MIami , U.S
The government in this cause is in a position of being “damned if they did or damned if they didn’t’. They are sometimes accused of being to hands on in the operations of private businesses and now being accused of not being hands on enough. The free enterprise way would be to lobby GT&T directly to make the necessary changes.