Your best was not good enough, Mr. Mahadeo

Jul 03, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I look on with amazement at the level of satisfaction which the outgoing Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Yog Mahadeo, has exhibited while reflecting on his tenure in office. He seems quite pleased and highly proud of the so-called achievements of the telephone company over the years.
These ‘achievements’ include (and I quote from the Kaieteur News’ Sunday Special): “Ten/10, FastBall, Jingle & Song Bollywood competition, ColorFest, Gospel Concert, Cinderella, National Spelling Bee, Berbice Rebellion, Feel the beat, Text, Talk, Topup, Dollar talk, Gameshow, Dora, Text-me, Wrestling, Easterfest, Beres Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Shilpa Shetty, Night of Love, Magical Night of Christmas, Know-your-Stuff competition, Switch-it-up.
There were also Diwali on the streets, Quaseeda competition and a whole lot more. Our presence at previous Building Exposition, GuyExpo, BikersFest, Motor racing and other such events were imaginative and extraordinary.”
Nice, indeed, Mr. Mahadeo. You make everyone believe GT&T is a company that has become an entertaining entity – entertaining the nation, holding grand chutney and other entertainment shows— yes— GT&T has succeeded highly in that arena. We all enjoyed the grand shows and concerts; that GT&T is very good at. Service? Internet rates and quality? Did I say service? GT&T sucks at all of that, big time!
You did not do your best, Mr. Mahadeo, at giving Guyanese the best telephone and internet services. Therefore, I highly disagree with your display of high self-esteem at this time, because I believe you could have done much better if you had steered the company in the direction of providing better grassroots services in its telecommunication delivery, not hosting and promoting grand concerns and chutney shows and entertainment.
At the end of it all, the persons who attend those shows and concerts go home and want to see they are having the quality of internet service they are paying for and better landline services.
“I have literally taken GT&T to every door” (a comment from the CEO in last Sunday’s KN) What???….No you have not, Mr. Mahadeo. More than two years after the launch of the much- touted ‘E- magine’ Broadband service to Georgetown (which is really Guyana in every way since Georgetown has everything first), Berbicians are still waiting for this service.
A large portion of this country is still without proper broadband internet service. This service lags behind what the rest of the world provides, and is nothing compared to what our U.S., Canadian and worldwide counterparts are paying for and experiencing. GT&T’s internet service is nothing short of disgraceful, you have to wait hours for videos to download; wait minutes to upload one photo on Facebook or in an e-mail, or endure hours staring at your computer screen, wasting time waiting for a photo album of a momentous event to upload in your email to share with family and friends also on Facebook, etc.
Excuses, excuses have been the order of the day for GT&T. Vandalism of their cables and their network are the excuses for the poor service and responses to landline fault- reporting. I hope with new leadership we can see an improvement in these areas. It shows how much we need competition for GT&T to provide better broadband internet services for Guyanese.
And guess what? E- magine, I hear, isn’t all that it is being touted to be. Persons in New Amsterdam, etc., who are receiving E- magine, are not getting anywhere near the 1MB speed that they are paying $9,980 for. They are getting less than half sometimes, if they are lucky. I hear, too, that Georgetown gets the best E- magine service. Oh, GT&T, stop fooling yourselves and Berbicians. Your service is terrible and not up to par with any telecommunication company in the Caribbean or in the world. Your ‘F’ Grade you received during my recent online speed test of the internet speed I am receiving just goes to show how ineffective the world views GT&T – even the internet gives GT&T a fat ‘F’ Grade.
This is how ineffective, poor, and antiquated GT&T’s service is. It took me more than one hour just to purchase a new SIM card last Friday from GT&T’s New Amsterdam office. SIMs, for some sick reason, are not sold by nationwide vendors anymore, which I think is stupid and crazy. I turned up at GT&T’s N/A office at around 14:45 hrs and did not get the transaction completed until after one hour!
They did not have the service to photocopy my ID card as the “equipment broke down” according to the attendant.
I had to leave the office and go to another part of the town to photocopy the ID card and then return to GT&T office; that’s how poor and inefficient their services are. There were only two attendants working, even though the place was crowded, and one attendant had to visit the washroom every five minutes. How unprofessional!
And guess what? Staring at you on the wall is a notice: “We at GT&T take pride in the services we offer”. I felt like tearing that misleading notice down.
Leon J. Suseran

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