Dear Editor,
This election seems to attract a lot of attention, especially with the coalition, and many agree this might be like nothing they have ever witnessed before. There’s also a rush to get votes with promises by the ruling party.
Over the years GT&T have been criticized for their performance although they are the only landline provider in Guyana. Before the PPP/C held their public meeting at Zeelugt, EBE, a PPP/C person walked around the village with a paper asking the villagers to affix their signatures because if they did they would get a landline phone in Zeelugt after the election if Donald Ramotar is re-elected. Now for years the residents of that village and many other villages have been making all sorts of appeals to GT&T for landline telephone and these always fall on deaf ears. The last time I checked, the government sold out the last 20% shares it had in GT&T to a Chinese company, and with that being done, it cannot request anything from GT&T. According to GT&T’s 2014 telephone directory, between 1991 -2012, it could only provide 154, 207 landlines to a country with a population of less than one million people. That’s some vision and commitment for Guyanese, depriving us of one of the basic necessities of life!
Finally Editor, running up to the Easter Weekend, my mobile phone and many other GT&T mobile phone users were being bombarded with the “Free Talk” promotion that GT&T was having for the Easter Holiday, and I gladly accepted the offer, especially when the price dropped from $500 to $240. The text messages that kept coming were short, but in that message I distinctly recall seeing “conditions apply.” Naturally I assumed the offer was only valid for GT&T customers, and Digicel users would not be able to enjoy the “Free Talk.” Now remember that the landline is provided by GT&T, so my Easter weekend was laced with expletives when I discovered that all the landline calls were being charged. Kudos to the officials at GT&T for their screwed up advertising. Fifteen letters were used for “conditions apply” and it would have only taken 14 letters to say “GT&T mobiles only.” Incidentally, there are over 547,047 mobile phones users, and could you imagine how much money GT&T stood to earn if most of the users took up the weekend offer? I surely would like to hear what the joint opposition has to say or promise.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
