GT&T customers will no longer need to queue up in lines or wait for their mail to receive their bills and manage their accounts with the launch of the company’s postpaid e-billing service.
Dubbed “MyAccount,” the free password-protected service will allow users to access and manage their accounts from anywhere at any time, GT&T’s Director of Customer Services Pamela Briggs explained at the launch yesterday at Cara Lodge.
Briggs headed the team that conceptualised the service and brought it to realisation.
Briggs explained that the service provides users with up-to-date billing information, as well as amounts due, disconnection dates and other information for landline and DSL services. “MyAccount” also allows users to update their information as well as view and download their bills within the last six months
The service requires an email address, a landline and a bill dated within the last three months so that the account may be set up. Once the account is active, the user will no longer receive paper bills but will be notified either via email or text message when updated bills are available for viewing.
For those new to GT&T, an ID card may be used as an alternative to an invoice. Should users need help when registering or managing their accounts, Live Chat is available. Live Chat provides users with the opportunity to chat with a customer service agent between the hours of 6 am to 10 pm, after this time, emailing an agent to receive help is an available option.
CEO of GT&T R.K Sharma, speaking at the event, said the service must be seen in the context of continuing development as the company seeks “to broaden the scope of a truly e-commerce society.”
The company, according to him, has been making great strides in the area of technological innovation.
“We see ourselves at GT&T as part of the global effort to create that vehicle that allows for the transformative culture that the use of internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies,” he said.
The focus of the company he added, is to digitize Guyana in order to realise the full potential of the digital development. For him, this can only be achieved by “a roll out of high speed broadband network.”
However, he stated that the company’s commitment needs the support of the regulators and the policy makers.
Appropriate and urgent spectrum allocation is the key to broadband infrastructure development, he said.
He announced that the company will be hosting a seminar within the upcoming months to discuss the possibilities of such allocations.
Speaking about the bill to liberalise the telecoms sector, Sharma declared, “Yes, we welcome liberalisation” but added that “it must be done in a transparent manner.”
He believes that contractual agreements must be respected during this liberalisation process and that there are certain rights and privileges embodied in the current contract which must be respected.
He related that the company is not demanding compensation in terms of dollar value but rather for the company’s rights to be retained.
The rights being referred to were not mentioned as Sharma said it would be unwise to do so given that they are currently being discussed with the government.
At the launch, Sharma also mentioned that the company is currently focused on two future developments.
He noted that before the end of July Mobile Money will be launching its merchant integration service, which will provide users with the ability to utilise their cellphones to make payments at various merchants countrywide.
It is the company’s hope that this service will be further upgraded later as the company is currently in an advanced stage of discussion with a commercial bank in an effort to facilitate the integration of the cellular phone with a banking network.
