…ATN Chief Executive Officer
THE modernisation of the local telecommunications sector with the laying of the fibre optic cable is regarded as a good investment for Guyana by President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Tele Network (ATN), Michael Prior. Prior, accompanied by ATN’s President of International Operations Paul Bowersock and CEO of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) Yog Mahadeo, met President Donald Ramotar at the Office of the President Wednesday.
Prior told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the company always looks forward to collaboration with the Guyana Government in the modernisation of the telecommunications infrastructure.
“GT&T has been a main partner in that, and ATN, as a shareholder, supports it… we have invested a lot in Guyana and we will continue to be a major part of the growth of the economy,” Prior said in a brief interview with GINA after the meeting.
The CEO, who witnessed the launch of GT&T’s “E-magine broadband” two years ago, described it as a necessary investment for the company and shareholders, and hinted that more plans are in the making.
“You have to start with infrastructure… it takes time to build… you have seen from the new store and the new BlackBerry series that we are continuing to invest and modernise. We are going to continue to improve customer care and service,” Prior said.
In July 2010, the telephone company officially launched its Suriname, Guyana Submarine Cable System (SG-SCS) that connects Guyana and Suriname to Trinidad and Tobago, and hence to the rest of the world.
The 1,240 kilometer cable was part of the company’s plan to make Guyana’s telecommunications capacity “light speed.” It preceded an investment by the government to bring another cable from neighbouring Brazil.
The government also plans to string a fibre optic cable along the modern transmission main from Crabwood Creek in Region 6 to Leonora in Region 3, through partnership with Hauwei Technologies, China’s largest networking and telecommunications equipment supplier.

The ongoing effort to improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure is in keeping with the overall goal of modernising Guyana’s economy to one where Information Communication Technology (ICT) takes centre stage.
The Guyana Government has faith that the sector will lead to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs and enormous development opportunities, including call centres, regional hosting opportunities, the provision of data for disaster recovery facilities, subscriber bandwidth services, telemedicine and distance learning, among others.
It is also the premise on which the government rolled out its One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme that will see, for the first time, 90,000 families receiving free laptops with access to the internet.
The laying of the government-funded fibre optic cable is still in the making, although the public distribution phase of the OLPF intensified in 2012. President Ramotar defended the move, noting that it would not be practical to keep the computers locked away until the cables are ready.