Dear Editor,

Now that GT&T have blocked VOIP totally on their network, I hope that all the people who are going to be out of work, and all the poor people who can’t afford to make direct overseas calls to ask their families for help, especially in the coming Christmas season, take note of what effects a monopoly can truly have.  How much poorer they are going to be.  I hope they won’t be too forgetful about it either.

Is it any coincidence that today’s paper mentions the SMS interconnectivity between the two networks?  Could it be that Digicel is slowly gaining ground and GT&T is feeling the pressure?  Well guess what people, it is the poor ones who feel the squeeze whilst the big ones squabble over the spoils.

Don’t believe that the government will be able to come into this at all. After all, they started the whole shebang when they started fighting that they were losing out on their precious VAT which they were not getting from “illegal” call centres.  This is the same VAT they discovered made them surplus millions every quarter.

Imagine that, the poor people can’t afford to pay GT&T’s overseas rate (so enabling the government to benefit from VAT), so they try to save their ’lil dollars (most likely asking for more dollars from their overseas relatives) using these same “illegal” call centres, who in turn are trying to find a way to make their own small piece, and what happens?  The government is clamping down on the thieves!

Instead of asking them to register their business and file returns, they get very technical (I wonder who are their technical advisers) and give GT&T sole rights to VOIP, something that wasn’t even dreamt of when their contract was made.  Or as my friend says, even charge a little bit on the thing, making their money at the resellers end.  But no, they want the whole hog.

Let’s hope this nightmare can come to an end by or before 2012, when that contract expires.

Let’s hope we can survive long enough so somebody else can give GT&T real competition.

But we can make GT&T pay too.  You know how?  All of you with GT&T cell phones switch to Digicel.  I wonder if GT&T would make more money on their overseas than on their cell circuits?  Can the Guyanese people actually get angry enough to do this?  Are they strong enough to say enough is enough?  What say you?  Digicel for GT&T?

Yours faithfully,
Nyall Jodhan