Yesterday at Cara Lodge the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) officially launched its ‘More Speed’ enhanced internet service.
The service, which will provide customers with up to 10 Megabytes per Second (Mbps) of internet speed, is being introduced in phases.
It was piloted in Eccles, East Bank Demerara in February, then offered to residents of Diamond/Grove, Nandy Park, and Providence all on the East Bank Demerara as well as Enterprise on the East Coast Demerara in March.
According to GT&T Chief Executive Officer R K Sharma, by May, it is expected that the improved service will be available in Houston, several areas of Georgetown and BV West.
This improvement in speed is expected to be provided in some cases at a fraction of the cost being currently paid by consumers.
Sharma told those gathered that the “…project has at its core enhanced speeds for our internet customers and a re-examination of our pricing models.
“GT&T’s commitment to the people of Guyana is to continually provide faster and better services at competitive prices”
The service which will be available to both business and residential customers was said to be the fulfilment of a promise made in January to provide enhanced value to customers in 2015.
According to Sharma, this “launch [is] to be seen in light of consistent [and] persistent development of the telecommunications industry.”
The data driven industry he noted has a pervasive and transformative effect. “We recognise the heavy reliance on telecommunications for development and growth,” he added.
In this regard 70-75% of data customers will automatically be upgraded to speeds as much as five times that of their previous service at the same prices. Packages of Gold to Bronze will be offered with the corresponding speeds varying from 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps.
Customers who are outside the range of the service will receive a decrease in their bills of almost 50 per cent while the entire service will be changed to a post-paid service. Payments will be due on the first of the month with a ten-day grace period.
Sharma stressed the continued work of his company noting that since 1990, GT&T has invested in excess of $58 billion which has naturally been transformative to a sector essential to development and growth.
