Dear Editor,
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) without a doubt has several disgruntled customers across Guyana, even as they made history a few days ago by launching the high speed DSL service. The company had announced that the improved internet services would only be felt in Georgetown and its immediate environs and not Berbice or Essequibo—at least not for now.
While many have been celebrating new and improved DSL services, there is still a large fraction of the population feeling left out of the celebrations and confused, I am sure.
I applaud GT&T’s new initiatives, more so that customers would not experience internet ‘downtime’ whenever the Americas II fibre is ruptured or breaks down.
However, after all the celebratory speeches and hype about the Emagine DSL service are said and done, GT&T is still charging the standard DSL fee to customers who are not experiencing lightning fast DSL, that is $9,980. I believe this is unfair. GT&T’s standard DSL service does not even produce 256Kbps speeds as they boast. My connection usually goes down as low as 220Kbps and wavers. Many DSL customers do not experience their connections at the full speed which they pay for. I also believe it is totally unfair that GT&T would continue to bill standard DSL customers the old fee, given the fact that Emagine customers in Georgetown are being billed the same fee for DSL four times the speed that we are receiving in the areas where the service has not been rolled out.
According to newspaper advertisements, the rates for the Emagine service is $9,980 while the fee for standard DSL service within the vicinity is $4,000.
I would be anxious to know what GT&T would say to disenfranchised customers like myself and many others.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran
