That growing telecommunication indusry

Dec 19, 2009 Editorial

The New Year is bringing with it an end to the landline monopoly enjoyed by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company. Of course, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) has the option to extend its monopoly but its managers, as an act of faith, have informed the Guyana Government last year, that it was waiving that option.
The number of landlines has grown tremendously from the days when the telephone company was Government-owned. The expansion programme was slow at first, but when it began to roll forward, areas that never had telephones suddenly gained access to telephones. Pretty soon a telephone was a fixture in almost every coastal household.
Then came the introduction of cellular technology. These days, all of Guyana is linked and the situation is a far cry from the days when people in the hinterland, seeking to make contact with their friends and relatives outside their community, placed a call and waited sometimes for days for a connection.
Since then, another telephone company, Digicel, has entered Guyana, albeit on the back of a much smaller company. It came with a mobile service and sparked a most exciting competition for the right to be the leader in mobile phone connections. This battle is ongoing. The cost of mobile phones has dropped to levels that have consumers smiling.
But Digicel wants more than a mobile phone service. It also wants to enter the landline market. This may be a good thing since competition has always benefited the consumer. But the greatest gains from the landline service rest with the ability to establish international connections.
The Guyana population is outward looking. Most of the people here have relatives who live in distant lands. In fact, the census suggests that there are more Guyanese living overseas than in the country itself. This fact is what makes landlines and an international connection very profitable. Digicel wants to enjoy this facility.
That company has all the technology to exploit this situation and demonstrated this fact on occasions when the international connection used by Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company failed.
There is also the drive for Information Technology. The government has blamed the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company of not providing the kind of service to aid the promotion of information technology in Guyana. It also accused GT&T of blocking funding from an international funding agency—some US$250,000—for a Government-sponsored IT programme. GT&T argued that the government was going to set up a telecommunication system to compete with GT&T in breach of an existing contract.
But these things apart, one must wonder at the race for a market that is small by international standards. The money spent by these two companies is a lot and none would want to give up gains.
But whatever the case, both of these telephone companies have been able to take communication to the furthest reaches of the hinterland. No longer are people cut off from the time they leave the coastal plains. This development has had an impact on some other aspects of national life.
Messages that dominated the radio waves are no longer as plentiful as they once were. People simply use their telephones to communicate with their hinterland relatives and peers. Even the distant Rupununi is just a fingertip away and for this one must credit the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company.
But for all it has done GT&T says that everything is not right. There are small groups and companies that offer calls on wireless facilities for which they pay no taxes and therefore can offer rates that the bona fide providers cannot match.
Perhaps the government should seek to regularize this section of the telecommunication industry. One cannot expect that both GT&T and Digicel would spend millions of dollars to install sophisticated equipment while some people merely have a dish and a microphone and an ability to undersell the major companies.

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That growing telecommunication indusry

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