With its focus on customers this year, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) will be implementing a faster broadband speed at a lower price, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Radha Krishna Sharma said on Saturday, while stressing that the non-availability of 3G and 4G (third and fourth generation) wireless service is hampering the company’s transformation plans.
“In the very near future our customers will experience the best broadband service ever experienced in Guyana… In some cases we will be offering as much as ten times the existing bandwidth speeds,” Sharma announc-ed during the telephone provider’s annual media dinner.
Addressing members of the media at the Grand Coastal Inn, he said the plan to bring faster broadband speed at a lower price is part of the company’s continuing efforts to further revolutionize services and customers’ experiences. “As we look to the future our thrust is customer centricity. We are acutely aware that the market dynamics are characterized by convergence, new technologies, maturing markets, greater competition, multiple product offerings and increasing customer expectations,” he noted.
Stating that GT&T is committed to being part of the global effort to bring broadband to societies and economies, he said broadband infrastructure development has “the penetrative and transformative effect in creating the truly e-society with concentration in the economic sectors encompassing trade and commerce.” He added that the socio-economic benefits of it for a developing economy will be far reaching.
“We believe in providing the best value for customers and we always endeavour to ensure our value thrust is maintained at its pinnacle. Thus you heard me right we will be offering higher speed for less cost to the customers,” he stressed.
Sharma firmly stated that data customers will not be able “to experience this service from any other provider in Guyana. We will simply be the number one choice.”
While adding that GT&T’s investment in telecommunications has led to the development of a number of sectors that depend heavily on ICT to remain competitive, he stated that the company has seen economic activities catapult with the introduction of its broadband services. He pointed to the emergence of a number of call centres and other IT dependent businesses that continue to create significant employment for youth who themselves have become very tech savvy and innovative.
Repeating Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh’s acknowledgement in his 2014 budget speech that ICT has resulted in growth of the business process outsourcing industry, Sharma said there is no doubt that both the government and private sector have seen the benefits of ICT and continue to exploit them.
Promising that the company will be taking “giant leaps forward” in 2015, he said that even though Guyana has a relatively low per capita income and small population, GT&T’s aim is to provide services which are as modern and sophisticated as the best regional provider.
Meanwhile, he expressed regret that his company’s transformation plans continue to be adversely affected by the non-availability of appropriate spectrum for 3G/4G offerings. He recalled that it had been four years since their first request for appropriate spectrum. “I would have been happy this evening to announce that we have a resolution in sight. Unfortunately this is not so. Thus deployment of next generation wireless is stalled despite spectrum proposals and presentation on a way forward that would relieve congestion and enable next generation technology and service,” he said adding that the company has not given up as it intends to intensify efforts with the relevant authority to move beyond this impasse.
3G and 4G services would allow for faster information transfer rates and broadband internet services for the users of smartphones and other mobile devices.
Both local carriers, GT&T and Digicel continue to use the Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) network, while the vast majority of other Caribbean countries have long moved on to 4G and Long Term Evolution (LTE).
Sharma told reporters on Saturday night that “it is a disservice to all that our society is denied the exponential benefits of a 3G / 4G telecommunication infrastructure.”
He continued that GT&T has deployed and successfully tested a pilot fibre to the home network project on the West Bank Demerara. This is a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) via fibre which will be launched in a commercial manner during the course of the year, he said, adding that the success of this pilot places Guyana in an excellent position to replicate this GPON network in other coastal unserved and underserved areas.
Sharma also spoke on the issue of the liberalization of the telecommunications sector. He said GT&T has made its stance known that it would welcome this development as “we recognized that deepening of this sector with the resultant market and technological dynamics benefits all and the investments and growth potential. To that extent we have made both written and oral submissions to the Special Select Committee on Telecom-munication Reform on specific aspect of the legislation.”
Sharma stated that fundamental to the liberalization of the sector is the treatment of “our contractual rights and government obligations as enshrined in a legal, lawful agreement between GOG and our parent company ATN. It is disappointing that notwithstanding our numerous meetings and offer of a negotiated settlement this issue remains unresolved.”
According to Sharma since 2008, GT&T has reached out during the numerous dialogues to bring about a settlement. “GT&T has made many overtures/proposals and frequently made itself available yet the state of negotiations is stalled through no fault of GT&T. It is unfortunate that this crucial issue of our contract has not been conclusively addressed and the legislation is now before the Select Committee,” he said.
“There are those who construe our vigorous defence of the rights enshrined in our current operating licence to mean that we are afraid of competition. Nothing can be further from the truth. Indeed at this juncture in our history we welcome competition and intend to lead the competition in the market segments we chose to operate. The truth is that insofar as there is no meaningful enforcement of our licensed rights, the licence in itself has become meaningless,” he said. Sharma added that at present, GT&T is competing fiercely in virtually every market segment in which it operates.
He said that all GT&T is asking for is policy certainty, predictable regulation and evenhanded treatment. “Of course, an obvious bonus for us would be a knowledgeable and objective press corps. Let the market determine the winners and losers,” he said adding that as the subsidiary of a traded Ameri-can company, GT&T will continue to insist on the rule of law and to conduct business ethically.
Sharma told the media that in 2015 the company will continue where it left off in 2014 focusing on improved customer service.
Among the initiatives in 2014 were the launch of an online billing platform, MyAccount, which is the first phase of GT&T’s move to offer a complete electronic telephone account management platform; expansion of the Mobile Money Service; the relaunch of the automated voice response service previously known as 093 and its new look website which features the 2015 telephone directory, access to MyAccount and chat, international roaming, service applications among other things.
According to Sharma during last year the company invested heavily in its corporate citizen initiative. The UG Centre for Technology, GT&T/UG Internet Resource Centre has been outfitted with new equipment, increased bandwidth and improvement to the general physical structure. This was done through a $60 million three-year memorandum of understanding between the company and UG.
He said GT&T has also entered into a three-year partnership with the Ministry of Culture to document in printed and digital form, the national art collection from the National Art Gallery. Meanwhile, other partnerships saw the company investing $9 million to assist the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana in promoting the sector locally and internationally and an identical sum to help the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana provide a better learning environment for orphans and vulnerable children among other things.
