Dear Editor,
Government chose to break the monopoly of the cellular services held by GT&T by allowing U Mobile which has now been replaced by Digicel to enter into the market. This was indeed good for everyone, as the rates are sure to go down and it gives opportunity for all to own a cellular phone. However the time has come for the monopoly that is held by GT&T as the only carrier that routes overseas calls to be broken also.
The failure to do so can and will result in unfair competition by GT&T. They have already started with the introduction of having cellular overseas calls at the same rates as landlines for a mentioned period. There is no way that Digicel can match those rates, because overseas calls made by their phones have no way of getting out other than being routed by GT&T, and this is done at a cost.
The marketing strategy that the phone companies have adopted is quite ridiculous and visionless. I am sure that it cost Digicel millions to bring Akon and T.O.K and it will cost even more to bring future artistes. No doubt Sherwin Winchester took his share too from GT&T. I guess the phone companies have now gotten into the business of bringing artistes to Guyana.
Why not give back to the people that use the cellular service? How difficult is it to develop and implement a reward scheme for customers? What about the customers, especially the older ones that have no interest in going to see one of the experience shows? What do they get for their loyalties?
I was quite impressed when I received a text message from GT&T saying that my phone was credited with $1000.00 out of the blue. I figure one of the best ways to market your product is to give back to the people that support you and at the same time the millions that are being paid to these imported artistes should be converted in a similar manner.
I believe that once the people know some incentive is available they will continue to support their service provider and at the same time an advertising benefit by the companies will be realized by word of mouth by their customers. People will speak of the benefits of one provider against the other.
Yours sincerely,
K. Persaud
