Over the last six to eight months, the Guyana Tele-phone and Telegraph company (GT&T) has lost appropriately US$2 million in revenue through international calls that have bypassed the company’s network, Chief Financial Officer Yog Mahadeo says.
In a recent interview with this newspaper, Mahadeo said this problem has been in existence for some time, but stated that there has been an increase in this activity over the last 18 months. He said this activity has not only robbed GT&T of substantial revenue but also the nation, since whenever GT&T loses revenue the country also suffers since lower taxes are paid.
What is telephone
bypass?
According to the Chief Financial Officer “telephone bypass” refers to international calls that are made in and out of Guyana which do not go through the GT&T network. Currently GT&T has the licence for all international telephone traffic. Mahadeo explained that under normal circumstances, someone overseas who is making a call to Guyana would dial 592, which their local phone networks would then transfer to the GT&T switch in Guyana. At this end, Mahadeo explained, the calls are transferred to a GT&T landline or GT&T or Digicel mobile phone.
But he said that while outgoing calls which bypass the GT&T switch are an issue, it is not nearly as big a problem as the incoming calls that bypass the network. This, he explained, is predominantly an issue with calls coming from the USA and Canada.
Mahadeo said bypass occurs because of some degree of selfishness by the giant phone companies in the USA and Canada, who do not care about the revenue lost by GT&T. He said that these large companies may give phone minutes to an illegitimate bottom-house operator in North America. Calls can then be made to Guyana via these illegal operators. According to him, this bottom-house operator instead of sending the call through the GT&T network routes it directly to another illegal bottom-house operator in Guyana. Such an operator, he explained, has a bank of SIM cards which these operators use to send these calls out directly to a telephone numbers. Since these individuals do not have the capacity of the GT&T network they are forced to compress the voice and this results in telephone calls of “horrible quality”. Mahadeo said that when this happens, GT&T is unfairly blamed for the poor quality of these calls which do not pass through its network. He said that another sign that an international call has bypassed the local network is when a telephone user receives an international call which bears a local cell phone number.
Although bypass is common in other territories in the region, Mahadeo said that he was convinced that Guyana was the territory most badly hit by this phenomenon. He made this assessment was based on the significant number of Guyanese who reside in North America, many of whom contact relatives in Guyana frequently.
In an effort to counteract the problem of bypass, Mahadeo said, the ‘Call Home Guyana’ card was launched. This, he said, is a legitimate and cheaper means by which persons overseas can call Guyana. He also said that good quality calls are also assured if these cards are used.
Additionally, Mahadeo said that the company has approached the government for assistance. Further, the local phone company has contacted US and Canada-based telephone companies and according to him, these companies are trying to address the problem as well.
However, the Chief Financial Officer emphasised that the citizens are essential in curbing the problem of bypass. He urged anyone who receives an international call from a local cell phone number, to report it to the phone company. Further, if a caller receives an overseas call of poor quality, this should be reported as well.
Meanwhile, Mahadeo said that so far whenever the company discovers illegal operators it takes appropriate actions against them. However, he said that it was not always easy to find these persons. The Chief Financial Officer emphasised that the company was very serious in addressing the problem even though certain elements of control the issue was out of its hands.
– customers urged to report irregularities
How much reward does Gt& T plan to give to people who report about the illegal operators. Everybody looking for a cheaper way to communicate with loved ones. They really expect people to call with those kind of reports. Wake up Gt&T is time to go with the flow. Free up the system. With all the technology on hand your calls need to be way cheaper. You all need good competition to wake up.
GT&T deserve to be kicked to the kerb. They are charging a lot of money for terminating the international calls. Calls from contriies like UK,US & CANADA to most of the countries that surround Guyana are dead cheap, but not to Guyana. We ask ourselves, why?
Reading the words of someone who is a proponent of a monopoly is like listening to a Colonialist explain why independence is a bad thing!
GTT and the Guyana Government have failed its people regarding telecommunications. Travel to Jamaica, Barbados or Trinidad and you will experience the difference in service options, service coverage, telephone density, internet applications, and a host of other things. I even believe Haiti is ahead of Guyana in this regard – these people should be ashamed. GTT had a very long monopoly that enriched themselves only and they did not use this revenue to develop the telecoms infrastructure in the country. This was a disservice to the people of Guyana but when you are a monopoly and have a complicit government you can behave this way.
The telecoms market has been forced open by VoIP (notice they were careful not to mention this word in the article). The global VoIP market place exceeds $1 Trillion annually with huge Telecoms players across the globe. There are many conferences dedicated to VoIP and in particular buying and selling of whole sale minutes of which GTT itself has participated. These are not bottom house operations – this is the direction of the global market place and monopolies find themselves in a very difficult position since this technology is a threat to their monopoly status. Every telecoms entity buys and sells VoiP minutes because they are all looking for a cost advantage to send minutes (traffic) to other countries. Why should someone pay 40 cents to call Guyana? And Why should only GTT have access to this revenue especially when they do not invest it in infrastructure development? The solution is to provide licenses to those who would like to compete in Guyana so as to improve the services in Guyana. Or the Government should set the price and enforce certain standards of the company that benefits from monopoly status.
Lastly, the world is so far ahead of Guyana it is shameful. Across the globe the telcoms and internet infrastructures are improving, voice, data, video and television are streaming online (some can get these on their mobile devices), IP PBX’s are common place, and there are many other things being developed. Where is Guyana? GTT and the government need to answer this question. Businesses are afraid to go into Guyana because the infrastructure is poor. Call centers who operate in Guyana face quality problems because they cannot provide proper services to their clients because of the infrastructure. One call center has closed costing Guyana many jobs.
It is time for us to move forward and we should be thankful for VoIP for driving down the price for calling in and out of Guyana. As Guyanese we need to demand more of our Government, only then can we close the gap with the rest of the world.
GT&T y are u crying,for 20yrs you guys exploited ppl in GT. until the launch of digicel that force your prices down for local calls. the world is changing and VOIP is the way forward. u claim u loose U$2M on oversea calls in to Guyana, so what u made more that over the last 20 yrs.You must tell us how much u made on local,cause the termination will drive up our local calls tell us what the amount.It business you have to loose somewhere to gain somewhere else so stop bitching and freeup the market.
As usual whenever some spokesperson from GT&T opens his mouth,one feels like vomiting.The message is so one sided that it begs the question -why is the stabroek news reporting such infomercial,why cant the reporter research the subject matter to gave a much more balanced view.I guess is it the normal lazyman attitude that has infected Guyana for many decades.
Why do overseas telephone companies use bypass systems to Guyana? Simple The customer pays perhaps 15-30 cents per minute via a bypass compared to 89 cents per min for call terminated by GT&T.
The problem is not of GT&T alone but the ineptitude and lazyness of the Guyana Government.They talk all day about IT and Telecommunications infrastructure etc,yet none have a clue about what it means and what its impact on the Guyana economy.They talk about the wonders of establishing call centers yet they have not addressed the high cost of telephone services in Guyana- 89 cents per minute,I call South Africa,Australia and India for free from the US.I pay a flat rate of $24 dollars/month.Can GT&T provide such facilities.
GT&T speaks about robbing the country of revenue when using bypass,let GT&T say how much goes into the government coffers compared to their “real” profit-very little.GT&T has done little to update the telephone system in Guyana,it is only those areas that they can create a high revenue stream that are addressed.
The Government is coat tailing Gt&T when it come to telecommunications-just shows their backwardness and lassitude that has enveloped the people who are suppose to move the country
forward.
An old British Telecoms advert said “Talk is cheap” hence we see the government and the telephone monopoly in bed.
To even print such statement by the CFO of GT&T in the Stabroek New is an insult to the people of Guyana,perhapd the reporter and editor should be demoted -become a government minister.
Philip