Dear Editor,
For the longest while, cell phone customers in the North Rupununi have been getting the proverbial “shaft” when it comes to GTT’s mobile data service. In the North Rupununi customers have to pay mobile data rates equivalent to those of users on the coast despite the fact that data service in the North Rupununi is frustratingly slow. So if cell phone users in the North Rupununi want to have access to Facebook, WhatsApp etc. they have to cough up various fees ranging from a daily fee of $449 for 300 MB of data, to a weekly fee of $1499 for 1500 MB of data to a monthly fee of $2699 for 2 GB of data.
These rates are good value for money in Georgetown for example which benefits from 4G data service but in the North Rupununi, users are getting the wrong end of the deal because the data service is much too slow. So for example if a user in the North Rupununi subscribes for a daily data plan, all 300 MB of data allotted has to be used out within twenty four hours from time of subscription. And as the users in the North Rupununi know all too well, that is not possible because the data service is just too slow. So GTT provides the user with two unpalatable options when a data plan is close to expiration; sign up for a new data plan (and pay the relevant subscription fee) to roll over all unused data to the new plan or allow your data plan to expire and lose all unused data as well as your money. So basically users are caught between a rock and a hard place. They can either continue paying for an inefficient service or continue losing money by allowing unused data to go to waste. And if that is not bad enough, for some reason newer models of phones, especially the Samsung brand perform very poorly in the North Rupununi. To send a WhatsApp message sometimes literally takes hours!
So its begs the question firstly of what causes new model expensive phones to perform so poorly in the North Rupununi and secondly why is the data service so slow when in other hinterland locations such as Lethem and Mabura, the service is much faster. Could it be that the number of subscribers in the North Rupununi is too small for GTT to pay much heed in ensuring that a proper service is provided? Why does GTT which makes millions of dollars in profit annually not ensure equality of service throughout the country? As such I am kindly asking the Minister of Public Telecommunications as well as the Public Utilities Commission to look into this matter with urgency.
I am humbly awaiting a response to the issues raised in this letter.
Yours faithfully,
S. Fredericks