Government questions GTT’s ability to sufficiently meet Guyanese telecoms & internet needs

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications (MPT) in response to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) company’s press statement on illegal activity conducted by Digicel says its intention is to arrive at a resolution that will be in the best interest of Guyanese.

GTT has accused mobile service provider, Digicel of facilitating an “illegal, unlicensed trans-border link between Guyana and Suriname” but the Ministry which recognises  the issue as a complex one; is now questioning “whether GT&T has sufficient data capacity to meet the needs of the market and the degree of congestion of its network.”

In addition, the MPT is now inviting GTT to “to submit relevant information and data to clearly demonstrate that they have the network capacity to ensure that the people for Guyana will not be adversely affected by discontinuance of the Digicel link to Suriname.”

However, the Ministry in a statement today (Sunday, March 26, 2017) is also clarifying that Government is not condoning this activity but is being practical about the needs of Guyanese people and businesses.

“While the Government is committed to ensuring that applicable licence terms and conditions are  honoured, we must similarly ensure that relevant obligations in the licences that provide for adequate service are met, and also that the needs of the people are met” the statement said.

The Ministry believes that a fully liberalised and competitive sector will prevent the resurgence of claims such as these.