Dear Editor,
I READ carefully what the CEO of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company ( GTT) has said in Sunday 2/5/2017 Stabroek News and promises faster Internet by June 2017,and he is hoping for an increase in landline rates. We wouldn’t mind paying for the service if it will improve. For decades, customers, including myself, have been paying for a service which does not compensate for our hard- earned money, and most of all no one would listen and address our complaints here on the Essequibo Coast. For the past six months, I have made several complaints to the branch here at Anna Regina that my Internet and landline telephone are not working properly; to date, no one has found the time to come and look at it, although I am living just a stone’s throw away from the exchange.
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT &T) will have to get its act together, because when I dial a number on my landline telephone, all I hear is a recorded voice “this number is temporarily disconnected or you cannot reach the destination.”
When I call the same number with my GT&T cellphone, I am connected to the person at the other end. This has been going along for years; the Internet sucks almost every day and night, the speed we are getting here and paying for on the Essequibo Coast is unbelievable. At times we cannot upload a page or a picture, but we are paying 14 per cent VAT without any improvement to the service.
This thing can be really frustrating, especially when I have to submit my weekly broadcast relay report on the performances of the National Communications Network Inc. operation here in Region Two, to the Georgetown head office.
Because of the slow Internet and no telephone service, I am unable to send my report to catch the 08.00 am meeting with the CEO and the engineers. Sometimes I have to wait until the speed improves then I will get to send it, by that time the meeting is finished.
This service is really hampering my work too as the Essequibo Chronicle Correspondent, I cannot get to send my article via email with pictures; I cannot even communicate with my bosses.
If you go to any Government or private offices, especially the banks, GRA, GWI, GPL,NIS,GTM Clico, etc etc, you cannot do any business because the systems are down and you have to go home, no matter how near or far you come from, your entire day is wasted.
I heard of sad stories that people from as far as Supenaam , Charity and the Pomeroon River, sat at the offices without food, hoping that the Internet would be restored and the system would be up so they can do their transactions, only to be told to come back another day. The Essequibo Chamber of Commerce should speak out against GT&T’s poor service after all, the business sector is being affected too.
At this time, it is unfair to ask for an increase. Most of the people here on the Essequibo Coast depend on rice-farming and already they are being saddled with low prices for their produce and cannot make ends meet, plus they have an abundance of taxes to pay.
Many lost their crops to flooding and had to leave their land abandoned; some took out their little savings or borrowed money from the banks to go back to the land. All the businesses here depend on rice, I think generally the whole country is going through a great depression, however, when there is prosperity, people who are using the service will pay the increase.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan