Dear Editor,
GT&T’s recent move to block all VOIP resources on the internet could be considered just another attack on the freedom and rights of the Guyanese people. These resources were created by other companies overseas to make it easier and cheaper for family and friends to keep in contact.
In my opinion, GT&T does not have the authority to block or degrade any service provided by international companies via the internet. Guyanese have the right, just as do all other people in the world, to be able to use the services provided by Net2Phone, MediaRing, Skype, etc, to make international phone calls since they would be paying those international companies for the service.
Why should Guyanese pay the excessive prices that GT&T charges for their landline international services when there are cheaper alternatives? This seems to be greed on GT&T’s part since the people who would need the internet to make calls, would also make use of either GT&T’s ‘blazing fast’ DSL service.
By degrading VOIP and blocking VPN services it seems that GT&T wants to have its cake and eat it too.
How will the internet café owners and other GT&T customers be reimbursed for services already paid to those international companies that provide them with VOIP solutions? Not forgetting all the VPN solutions that would have been purchased and blocked by GT&T?
It has to be taken into consideration that GT&T does not own the internet; they only provide their customers with a connection or gateway to the internet, and all services offered on the internet should be made available to the customer. GT&T has no right to block services provided on the internet for their corporate benefit.
Why should someone pay $116 per minute to the United States, when you can use Net2Phone and pay the equivalent of $10 per minute? It must also be noted that VOIP calls are much clearer with less ‘lag time’ than GT&T’s landline service.
Our country cannot develop if we cannot use new technologies that are easily accessible on the internet because we are restricted by one corporate entity that seems to have the support of other organisations.
For one to fully understand how profit oriented GT&T really is you just have to remember the title given to Mr Gene Evelyn, the Director of Rate-Making. I have ‘Googled’ this job -title and it seems that currently Mr Evelyn is the only person in the world to hold such a title. I would like him to please explain to me why Guyanese have to pay such a high price for bandwidth.
It is shameful to see GT&T charge us $9,980/ month for a 256kbps (kilo-bits per second) connection when the same connection from the Telecommuni-cations Services of Trinidad and Tobago’s (TSTT) BLink Broadband using the same technology costs the equivalent of G$2,415/month.
What GT&T considers ‘blazing speed’ and high speed internet is their 512kbps connection, which costs $33,250/month. When using such an internet connection in Guyana, most users would be content with the speed at which web pages load and the download speeds achieved in which 100MB (megabytes) can be downloaded in 30 minutes. But to the seasoned internet user, a 512kbps connection is nothing compared to TSTT’s 10Mbps (10 megabit per second) connection which can download the same 100MB file in a mere 1 minute, with a cost equivalent of $21,280/month.
After looking at the huge difference between the two companies’ pricing schemes, I wonder how the Director of Rate Making at GT&T justifies that of his company.
What I am most confused about is GT&T’s latest bandwidth plan, the 1Mbps connection that they sell for $120,000/month. Why was it not advertised publicly, and why is the price so high? From my calculations, and I am no mathematician, a 1Mbps connection, could be considered as two (2) 512kbps connections, so how does the company explain how they came up with the price of $120,000/month? From my calculations it should work out to no more than $66,500/month.
I am reminded of when GT&T started an ad campaign when Digicel was introduced to the market. The ad campaign had a nationalistic theme, “It’s a Guyanese thing.” It is laughable to think that we are supporting a company that is hindering our progress in using new technologies that would encourage development. Why is the use and development of internet technologies for an entire country left solely in the hands of a company that appears to have no interest in the people supporting them, and why should we continue to support them?
GT&T says that they will have another fiber-optic link operational in Guyana by 2010, but why should we have to wait until then for affordable internet and have to endure restrictions to our internet service when the world at large can enjoy free and fair internet use?
Yours faithfully,
Josh I Vandall
A important point is being missed here it is the Govt of Guyana which ordered GT&T to take action against the dispensing of information via the means mentioned. IT is the govt that wants to control the free flow of information. GT&T was powerles to act ontil this socialist/ Marxist government ordered it to. GT&T 20 year contract is soon coming to an end …you ent see nothing yet ….and who is the Minister of Informatio????? yes he is Minister of many Ministries …that’s why Veerasamy MOSES Nagamotoo can’t get a Ministerial job.
i’m a c-point vendor, one day i made a mistake so i decided when i close shop i will call them & informed them about my mistake. i dialed & got all customer representatives are busy, so i put the phone on speaker & decided to do my day exercise. i did some pull-ups, 10 ten pull-ups, 10 pushups, some jumping jack, then, some more jumping jacking, some air boxing, walk around the house couple well times it was over 9 mins then phone start ring and it rang out. i tried back and it rang immediately and i could hear the phone answered, because of the background noise, and hang up. 3 other times this happened. answered and hangup. THIS IS HOW GT&T TREATS IT’S CUSTOMERS.
GT&T faces the same challenges as every traditional telco. How to provide service in a whole which has fast become IP driven. The answer is to embrace new technolgies. It sounds easy but GT&T has plugged money to develop and its infrastructure all over Guyana. And they no doubt expect a rate of return. With regulation on local rates, like it or not, their mindset won’t take lightly what they see as competition for their international gateway. But blocking VoIP is not the answer. That only creates dissent and hurts many poor people who rely on the VoIP to talk to their familis in the diaspora. I wonder if they thought about that before installing the block.
Anyway, it seems to me that the folks at GT&T are finally thinking smart. My aunt called me on her yap jack just to say the VoIP is allowed. Good to see the policies revised. Guyanase will have a happy christmas after all.
This is an issue the Guyana government has been pussyfooting on for the longest while! GT&T has used its monopolistic powers to prevent the spread of other phone & internet service providers from operating in the Guyana economy. It is time the gutless Jagdeo administration stand up and put an end to the monopoly of GT&T! Almost all the other countries in the world has put an end the monopolistic reign of phone providers. The tiny BVI has C&W, Digicel, Boatphone, etc. Are Guyanese Stupid to be blatantly taken advantage over in this manner?
We demand the Guyana government STOP the foot dragging on this issue of fundamental importance to all of us! End the GT&T monopoly!
Re: “A important point is being missed here it is the Govt of Guyana which ordered GT&T to take action against the dispensing of information via the means mentioned. IT is the govt that wants to control the free flow of information. GT&T was powerless to act until this socialist/ Marxist government ordered it to…” Why worry:
“All Your (Their) Base Are Belong To Us”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU
“Unified communications and collaboration”
“The IBM unified communications and collaboration (UC² ™) vision is to make it easier for colleagues, customers and partners to find, reach and collaborate with one another through an integrated unified communications experience. IBM offers unified communications and collaboration solutions with enterprise IM, presence information, Web and video conferencing and built-in Voice over IP capabilities to help meet your expanding realtime collaboration needs…”
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/category/uc2/
Go Guyana Go! Go Guyana Go! Go Guyana Go – Go High Tech!
Go Boldly, As – “Technology Rules The World”!
Good article,you should also read the Peter Ramsaroop piece he did in the Kaieteur News.You guys need to keep the pressure on them.
Guyana (sitting on top of the Industrial Giant – BRAZIL, one of the BRIC countries) has the potential of becoming an “High-Tech Hub” of the world like those of India, Russia…; and, GT&T and the Guyana Government must take their “greedy eyes” and “hands” off the budding IT Industry in Guyana.
Big Brothers (CARICOM); and, the United States of America (USA) Are Watching! :-$ 8-)
Silica (Chips) from the Soesdyke-Linden High-Way (Silicon Hills) Sand Anyone!
its a disgrace GT&T BLOCK PC TO PHONE, can’t even make a call from my computer
most guests that come guyana walk with their laptop computer
and they can’t call their families from yahoo messanger
people also get block on DIALUP CONNECTION
why are we paying they isp? people pay they isp for open ports
what gt&t should be blocking is them porn site, porn site would do more damage to them young people
what would our overseas guests say?
i have my personal dialer with the map of guyana , where people can download and they can dial on the map of guyana, its promoting guyana, now its no used
come on GT&T
be reasonable
ALIBABA
This article is akin to the Barbados experience (Link here: http://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/barbados-business-and-government-hesitate-to-use-the-term-ip-internet-protocol-why/) Interested parties wanting to overcome this situation may contact my USA office: as we have effectively addressed this issue in other countries.
The PPP will never get it.!!! Instead of promoting the internet(like Gore) , they are driving them out of business.