Dear Editor,

After reading about Mr Sharma not being able to receive any updates on his application for a relay station, I thought it pertinent to pen a few points of my own on the issue of our wireless spectrum.

Our political leaders take lots of time to tell us how GT&T is stifling innovation and keeping the country back because of its monopoly and its monopolistic behaviour.

But have these politicians taken a step back to see how much they themselves are stifling innovation and keeping the country back? By not opening the airwaves and maximising the use of our valued spectrum we are restricting innovation, development and access to technology. Our spectrum should be seen in the same light as that of any of our major industries.

More importantly though, is the fact that we can maximise our financial returns on our spectrum by opening up. My opinion is the managers (ie, government and NFMU), seem not to recognise the true benefits which can be had by this.

Secondly, by opening the spectrum the financial gains which can be achieved by the country through additional investments, services and job creation can be quite beneficial to the economy. I’m no economist so I’m not going to try to put a monetary figure or number value on this, but I would bet the benefits of opening up far outweigh those of not doing so.

Thirdly, like it or not, the world is becoming more mobile, be it the cellular/smart phone, the internet, broadcast TV, book reading/downloading devices, like the Kindle, etc, or whatever technology is condensing to give you anywhere, anytime access. If any businesses in Guyana wish to maximise on what the future has to offer they will have to maximise the use of technology, which in most cases will be wireless.

It is time our political leaders and political aspirants looked at these issues as a national issue and stopped keeping progress, innovation and access to modern technology back because of their own ridiculous fears.

Yours faithfully,
Nik Alleyne