Dear Editor,
GT&T needs to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ of competition. While GT&T and its employees have indeed contributed to Guyana’s development, their monopoly mode also has retarded Guyana’s development by imposing unnecessarily higher costs on Guyanese for telecommunication services, especially international ones.
In the global economy international communication is essential, and Guyanese entrepreneurs and society are put at a disadvantage in relation to their competitors when these costs are higher than they should be.
The PUC should continue to take the GT&T to task on this as government policy to correct the monopoly situation is moving very slowly, if at all.
One issue the PUC should examine is whether it is legal or justifiable for GT&T to deny or significantly impede the ability of Guyanese to use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephony services. This is just one example of where GT&T is abusing its monopoly power at the expense of Guyanese consumers and Guyana’s development.
Yours faithfully,
Fitzgerald Yaw
Well said mr. yaw, guyana do need to break away from GT&T monopoly that have a strangle hold on guyanese, the govt need to bring in new playere in the telecommunication sector, my question is who will pick up the slack, and given guyana’s high crime rate will foreign investors be attracted to invest in guyana.
GT&T is a relic of the PHENC which The PPP has embraced whole heartedly.
GT&T has retainers with many lawyers in town as a result no one in government no one in opposition will ever condemn GT&T.
Name one opposition figure who condems GT&T? this goes across the board, AFC, PHENC, PPP, DPP, GDDD whatever the heck they are not one of them has the cohones to end the GT&T Monopoly.
you’re right they provide a lousy service. i’m paying for a 256k bandwidth, i turned off all updates & services that might use up any bandwidth; did a download test, numerous times and plenty of days, the highest i ever got was a 216k. i had a 256k now dropped 128k wireless & download rates are still faster than dsl most of the times. considering i’m 2.79 miles – line of site from the wireless aps and over the demerara river, the wireless ping times are 800 % better than dsl.
Many people are very upset at GT&T and want to see this company go.
The real point RDMAN is that GT&T is hindering the growth of Guyana.
Many people need to wake up and demand that GT&T’s monopoly be dissolved immediately. How come every other country in the Caribbean have gotten rid of their monopolies? Heck even Bermuda an English territory has gotten rid of their English Monopoly which was cable and wireless and they only have 65000 people. That country has more competitors in this space now than we can count even ATN the parent company of GT&T participates in that economy not as a monopoly but in a free market so why are they here as a monopoly?
The cost for dedicated bandwidth from GT&T is extremely high compared to other local vendors.
As long as local wireless ISPs continue to have competitive rates for bandwith together with providing reliable service to customers then GT&T would have no choice than to lower their costs.
Take a look at GT&T rates (estimated) for dedicated bandwidth:
128k dedicated = US $1,499 per month
256k dedicated = US $2,300 per month
512k dedicated = US $3,900 per month
These rates are ridiculous. I’m sure some local VSAT and wireless ISPs can beat these rates and provide quality and reliable service as well.
compared to a DSL connection of 512K costs about 30-39 dollars us per month.
All the people who complain about our sovereignty like jagdeo and luncheon who accuse the british, you have given away our sovereignty here already you clowns.
How can this country develop with these costs that businesses have to bear, then you have to listen to jagdeo and the trash he feeds people about developing an ICT sector.
can’t even get wireless broadband here, imagine your laptop running on 36k… (they say 52k/56k but that’s not true) what a waste of time. Guyana is in the dinosaur age of telecommunications, and what little service is provided requires the proverbial ‘pound of flesh ‘