Dear Editor,
As a resident in the village of Schoonord, Parfaite Harmonie housing scheme on the West Bank Demerara for some three-and-a-half years, my experience has been one of a tremendous sense of achievement tempered by the fact that some important services are not functioning effectively.
There is the issue of the landline service, which has not reached the village of Parfaite Harmonie after ten years of existence.
This has led to some small wireless internet companies purchasing bandwidth from GT&T and reselling same to us. This has many issues because the quality of the connection is often poor but the companies charge, in my case, $7,500 for 512kbps, at a time when GT&T offered the maximum of 1Mbps, and currently, this same $7,500 provides at least 1.5Mbps from GT&T.
My internet service provider, Atlantic Wireless, located on Middle Street, Georgetown, has provided a horrible service for the better part of the two years that I’ve been using them, with connection speeds often greatly below the 512kbps I pay for every month. There was a period of 3 months when their service was all but dead, but I still paid my monthly instalments after they promised to refund me later, while promising to improve the service. The refund was never provided.
Currently, GT&T offers at least 5Mbps speed in Georgetown, but in typical Guyana style, the company refuses to make the necessary investments so that this increased efficiency is passed down to the punishing customers. This is allowed to happen because there is no proper consumer advocacy body that holds businesses accountable for shortchanging their clients. It is not that I haven’t presented my case to Atlantic Wireless, because I have had cause to call them at least once weekly to complain about slow connectivity, however, there is always an excuse proffered by their staff. In my informed opinion, this company is more than capable of significantly increasing the speeds provided to us in this part of the country, but are reluctant to pay the cost to please their customers. There is no reason why the residents of Parfaite Harmonie cannot be provided with an internet connectivity of at least 2 Mbps at the high end, and 1Mbps at the lower end. Offering 512kbps to customers in this day and age is an absolute rank insult to us, which is tantamount to utilizing dial-up connection in an era of DSL and Broadband internet connectivity.
I will continue to agitate for Atlantic Wireless and other small ISPs to cease the practice of ripping off customers in areas without landlines, and to provide decent internet connectivity to hardworking Guyanese citizens.
Yours faithfully,
Jeumayne Dummett
Editor’s note
Stabroek News sent a copy of this letter to Ms Sherisa Clement of Atlantic Wireless Networks for any comment she might wish to make, but she indicated she would not comment.
