-more bandwidth going to security firms, call centres
The introduction of GT&T’s Emagine Broadband is attracting interest from several overseas entities including universities looking to extend their online programmes to Guyana, the company’s CEO Yog Mahadeo says.
Speaking to Stabroek News last week, Mahadeo, who has been at the company’s helm for some two months now after serving as its Chief Financial Officer, said there have been several expressions of interest.
“We have spoken to in fact a few of the universities overseas. They have come into the country to see how we could set up connections so that students here can get better online access to education. We’ve also had interest from a business group overseas that wants to tap into the local artistes, to have them perform online and they could video upstream … so you don’t even have to take a flight out to go and appear in front of them,” Mahadeo said.
The CEO said they are working to cement those deals. However, as it relates to stimulating new businesses locally Mahadeo said there was still some way to go. According to him, there has not been anything “groundbreaking”
“What has happened though is that more call centres have been defining themselves and have been calling for bandwidth. We’ve also seen the private security firms requesting more and more bandwidth so that they could do live streaming from residences and so forth,” Mahadeo said.
He added that over the past three months there has been greater uptake of broadband service both from residences and businesses with some of the larger entities taking between 16 to 60 megabytes of bandwidth.
At the official commissioning of the Suriname/Guyana- Submarine Cable System which is the backbone upon which the Emagine Broadband service was rolled out in July GT&T had announced that some 20 megabytes of free bandwidth would be dedicated to education.
Schools
Mahadeo said more than two dozen schools have already started benefiting from the broadband service which was opened to the public on July 1.
“We currently have about 25 to 30 schools that are being provided with bandwidth. We have also partnered with Global Literacy, a group out of Canada that has started to set up computer labs in the schools, so we have partnered too with them and we’re providing bandwidth to the various schools so that their computer labs can start up.”
He added that the company is also talking to several schools to see whether they could get the parents to donate computers and GT&T would provide the bandwidth. The company is also working with the University of Guyana to boost student access to the internet.
The CEO said they have already procured the equipment to start expanding the service beyond Georgetown and have been looking at areas like Nandy Park and Eccles.
President Bharrat Jagdeo who had attended the July commissioning of the submarine cable had used the occasion to announce a three-year US$30M pledge to provide poor families with laptops. In his most recent pronouncement on the project on September 30, Jagdeo said they were looking to launch the One Laptop Per Family initiative within the next three months.
GT&T is keen to be part of that project and according to Mahadeo they have had some discussions on the issue.
“In terms of provisioning of bandwidth of course we have our plan for roll out of bandwidth across the country and we’re hoping the two will intersect. We have been in contact with the various persons to see how we can marry these two,” he said.
Mahadeo stated there have also been discussions on the company putting up more Wifi across the country and they hoped to start testing that by November.
The company’s 20-year operating licence expires at year end and it has since reapplied for an extension and Mahadeo says he hopes negotiations could begin soon.
“There has not been any move from either side away from negotiations but neither have there been talks. There continues to be a very cordial relationship between the government and GT&T. in fact I’ve been on record as saying I want to align corporate objectives with national objectives,” he stated.
On the security front Mahadeo said the company has been cooperating with the authorities. Two pieces of legislation were implemented in recent years tasking the telecommunications companies with putting systems in place to help counter criminal activities, those acts being the Interception of Communications Act (wiretapping) and the Telecommunications Amendment Act. The wiretapping law allows for the interception of electronic communication with a warrant signed by a judge or on the authority of a designated officer in cases of national emergency or should it be impractical to locate a judge in some urgent situation. The amended act calls on the companies to collect and store the ownership information of cellular phone users to aid criminal investigations when called upon.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene had said last month that the wiretapping law was not being used because he did not believe all the necessary equipment was in place, a position Mahadeo differs with as it relates to his company.
“As we speak we are compliant in terms of the equipment, in terms of all the set up we’ve had to do. I dare say … and I say this very humbly and very honestly, that I believe that Dr. [Roger] Luncheon would be best placed to pronounce on how he feels that is the state of affairs with the legislation enforcement. But from the technical side we are compliant with what is requested of us,” he stated.
The cost of setting up the system had been a major bugbear for the companies and Mahadeo said GT&T spent about US$1m to comply with the law. And while he was barred from commenting on whether they had been approached for wiretapping assistance Mahadeo said “the legislation is there and I think all parties are abiding with the legislation.”
The CEO said the company has been cooperating with the authorities when approached for assistance in keeping with the laws and its staff go “beyond the call of duty” to do so.
“There’s never been a time that I know that the police have asked us for help and we have either been unwilling to help or unable to help. We have helped as far as practicable, as far as the technology will allow us to help and we’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. As long as there is a need our staff comes out and we do whatever we can to help,” he said.
Referring to the problematic 911 system , Mahadeo stated that it was not his company’s fault when the system goes down.
“I would say it’s never really been the fault of the telephone service per se. there’s been technical problems and a lot of times I know that the term technical problems was used and people think that it is GT&T.
We have 140,000 subscribers across the country and it doesn’t go down in that way.
