The path to Digital Guyana under APNU+AFC leadership

Feb 23, 2020 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The APNU+AFC coalition successfully campaigned the 2015 General Elections with one of its key promises being the liberalisation of Guyana’s telecommunications sector. This promise – one that would create increase competition in the market and affordable telecommunications countrywide – was particularly important to the Guyanese people since this sector had been grossly underdeveloped in relation to our counterparts in the region.
The situation in Guyana was made more challenging as the previous PPP Government in fact renewed the GTT contract in 2010 at a time when in other parts of the world, monopolies were ending given the fast pace of technology.
In 2015, Guyana’s telecommunications market was characterised by its continued use of outdated technologies, such as EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) cellular networks: a 13-year old technology , in comparison to the rest of the world, which was using 3G and 4G (3rd and 4th generation) technologies.
After they acceded to government, President David Granger in January 2016 established the Ministry of Public Telecommunications and Catherine Hughes was appointed Minister.
Under her leadership, this Ministry expressed its commitment to promoting and implementing the Government’s vision of establishing ICT as a fundamental pillar of Guyana’s developmental agenda and increasing broadband and internet connectivity throughout the country. The Ministry undertook several strategies to ensure that the Government’s promise of liberalisation was delivered in effect, if not necessarily also in black-and-white.
The first notable accomplishment was the prompt passage into law of Guyana’s long-awaited Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill in July 2016. This is particularly noteworthy considering that this Bill was first introduced since 2011 under the previous PPP-led administration.
Other steps taken to bring the Act into force include the establishment of the Telecommunications Agency in January 2017. Both of these were fundamental to the Liberalisation process.
Another example of the widening of telecommunications was enablement of the evolution of Guyana’s networks from EDGE to 4G, which was done in time for Guyana’s Jubilee celebrations in 2016. Few understand that this was another important facet of a liberalisation environment.
In fact, this can be seen as the initiation of the Government’s forging ahead with greater connectivity for Guyanese by leveraging the disruption in the sector worldwide – without being restricted by ongoing liberalisation negotiations. This allowed Guyanese to reap the benefits of current technologies, such as OTT (over-the-top) television, messaging and voice calling (e.g. Netflix, WhatsApp, Skype) – benefits such as access to affordable and, in some cases, free, content and communication.
The Government recognised that our telephone companies were not interested in providing service in far-flung communities where they would derive little economic gain, regardless of their obligations, and set about to provide connectivity via the internet for its people.
By permitting the use of this enhanced technology in telecommunications and broadcasting, an enabling environment was created, that proliferated benefits comparable to a traditional liberalised environment.

Over the past 4 years, the growth of Guyana’s telecommunications has been exponential. Guyana now has 4G LTE networks, and has acquired a second subsea cable, which created redundancy and geodiversity with its Barbados termination. Internet speeds have increased significantly, and the sector has benefited from the introduction of widely accessible fibre-to-the-premises networks, which widened access to advances in education, healthcare, and communication.
The Ministry has also engaged several international and local companies, which have expressed interest in investing in the local sector, even as attempts are underfoot to include full liberalisation. This will pave the way for their swift entry, thereby making full liberalisation actualised quickly thereafter the completion of negotiations.
The Ministry has also aggressively pursued the enhancement of remote and hinterland connectivity, such as through the National Data Management Authority/eGovernment unit, which offers free internet access through ICT hubs to hundreds of communities beyond the coastline. Using satellite connectivity from several community ISPs countrywide, these government-implemented ICT hubs enable the residents to access enhanced services in education, healthcare, entertainment communication and government.
Minister Hughes’ long-term vision also includes a focus on creating an equipped workforce, one that is educated around innovation and able to adequately reap the benefits and job opportunities of a digital economy of the future.
This aligns with the Ministry’s mandate of ensuring that every Guyanese across every region, including and especially the hinterland regions, is not only able to access ICT but also able to harness its capabilities for their daily personal and professional needs. This strategy includes investing in the availability of education and training in the skills and competencies essential to the use of the new world of technology, such as through STEM clubs, robotic training and Code Camps.
In this pursuit of a fully digital nation, the Ministry has donated robotics kits to STEM clubs at public primary schools, which have been proven to strengthen the students’ skills in the sciences, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and technical skills. The Ministry is also investing in regional Code Camps, such as the Iwokrama International Centre in Region 8, which was identified as a hub to deliver training modules to students and adult residents of surrounding communities.
These initiatives are part of a comprehensive plan to ensure that the focus of the Ministry does not stop at liberalisation but goes beyond to ensure that its potentials are fully and beneficially realised for the Guyanese people.
Visionary leadership has permitted the sector to benefit from the newest technologies, surpassing the expectations of liberalisation in a way that effectively made traditional liberalisation moot.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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