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Govt. promises systematic changes for countrywide internet service in 2017
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) on Friday opened a new branch of its Customer Experience Store on Brickdam which was formerly the company’s BlackBerry station.
GTT Customer Experience Store on Brickdam.
Present at the opening were Minister of Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, Chief Executive Officer of GTT, Justin Nedd, Retail Operations Director, Allison Dundas, and the Store Manager, Sally Kirton.
Minister Hughes said that, GTT is an important partner in the development of Guyana. “I personally feel that we cannot transform our country until we get our telecommunications and our internet connectivity to all parts of the country in place”, she said, “and we cannot do that without the support from GTT.”
The Minister remarked that, the store opening is seen as a demonstration of GTT’s commitment to work with its customers and to continue to provide superior service. According to Hughes the Ministry is working towards many improvements in the government service for 2017. She said that there are a few systematic changes that will roll out in the year ahead.
The Minister said that the aim for 2017 is to give Guyanese the option of conducting many of the functions of government offices without physically being there. The Minister spoke about the transferal of the passport office’s functions online; so that one would only be required to physically take in your passport picture.
Minister Cathy Hughes cuts the ribbon with CEO of GTT, Justin Nedd.
She also praised the recently concluded “Hackathon” as being a major success and added that the Ministry plans to host five more in the New Year. The aim being to have young people become more engaged in telecommunication and the development of apps.
She assured the public that come 2017 they can expect internet hotspots countrywide, especially in the hinterland communities in the sectors of Health, Education and Farming.
Minister Hughes also addressed the fact that internet access would allow persons in Hinterland communities, with just a health centre, to communicate with persons in Georgetown about medical proceedings.
Also, the schools in hinterland communities will be able to have the opportunity to educate the children who do not have teachers for a specific subject.
Recently, GTT and the government put an initiative in place to give people free access to information from more than 20 local and international websites including Wikipedia, Educationgy.org, Guyana Learning Channel.com, google.gy, gina.gov.gy and all major news sites in Guyana using 4G internet. This service is now exclusively available to all GTT mobile users across Guyana.
Also delivering remarks at the event was Chief Executive Officer Justin Nedd who said, “GTT is in the midst of change. We are now starting to see some of the hard work that we would have put in over the last few years. GTT is really committed to Guyana”.
Additionally, Nedd said that all the furniture in the store (chairs and tables), were all locally manufactured. GTT would have reached out to local manufacturers who stepped up to the plate in producing quality furniture.
In June, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, Gert Post, said that 4G is now available in Guyana and that GTT wants to ensure that everyone can freely benefit from this new technology by being able to use the web for education, information, check the weather and to access the information of the Government of Guyana.
Recently, the Telecoms (amendment) Bill 2016 was passed after tumultuous debate on July 18, 2016 with all of its clauses intact in the National Assembly. This comes after years of the Bill being subject to deliberations, consultations and delays.
Meanwhile, there have been clashes between GTT, Guyana’s sole telecommunications service provider over the years, and Digicel. The Bill paved the way for a competitive playing field in the telecommunications sector, by providing for an open and liberalised sector.
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