Latest update April 11th, 2025 9:20 AM
Jagdeo criticises Gov’t for delay in liberalisation of telecoms sector
Leader of the political opposition, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has denounced the Coalition Administration for what he deems as “dragging their feet” in regards to liberalising Guyana’s telecommunications sector.
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
During his weekly Thursday press briefing, the PPP/C General Secretary highlighted Guyana Telephone & Telegraph’s (GTT) internet service as operating “very slow”.
This, he said, is frustrating for not only him, but other customers.
“I don’t know if you are getting a nightmare trying to [operate your] WhatsApp and your WhatsApp is dropping all of the time because I am getting that and I use GT&T. Even the Blaze is like, slow; very, very slow.”
However, the Opposition Leader noted that he was willing to overlook the company’s “disservice”, to focus on bigger issues, such as when the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition promised to liberalise the sector long before the period of the 2015 General Elections.
“You recall we had the legislation ready; both parties had promised this in the period before the election. They’re supposed to, by now, have a liberalised sector; the order should have been issued,” Jagdeo said.
The Opposition Leader made reference to an article written in another publication, which stated that GTT wanted a US$44 million tax debt settled before moving on with liberalization.
In the article, it was stated that in early last year, the current administration signed a “secret Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), committing both sides to settling all outstanding issues.”
“So we don’t know what is there and has it not been state. Now we hear about the secret MOU… We should all ask about this issue. Where this Memorandum of Understanding that is was signed secretly by the government with the telecommunication company?” the Opposition Leader questioned.
Over 4,000 persons have signed a petition calling for Government to get serious and formally announce the liberalization of the Telecoms Sector.
Since being announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed last year, there has been little word on when the liberalisation would actually happen.
Digicel, the main competitor to GTT, joined the growing calls.
“The people of Guyana are tired of poor, unreliable broadband services and remote communities not being able to realise the dream of modern communications in their homes and are fed up of limited choice and not having the benefits of true competition,” Digicel said earlier this week.
The Irish-owned company explained that those were the conclusions of a Change.org petition calling for the liberalization of the telecommunications sector in Guyana, which has been gaining a lot of attention online, boasting over 4,000 signatures to date.
The petition will be sent to all political parties contesting the elections by February 8.
Not only is the #LiberalisationNOW Change.org petition racking up new signatures daily, the accompanying campaign video on YouTube has gained over 52,000 views and the campaign Facebook page has 2086 followers with campaign posts having a reach of 654,990 since the start of campaign.
“Likewise, there are 16,725 engagements on the Facebook page with people actively commenting and sharing posts to show their support for breaking the monopoly and liberalising the telecom industry,” Digicel said.
However, cable television operator E-Networks on Wednesday landed its own submarine fibre optic cable. The cable will be used by the company to expand its array of services.
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