…GTT moves to utilise USF facility to fund internet for hinterland

RESIDENTS in some hinterland regions may soon receive access to internet connectivity through the utilisation of a Universal Service Fund (USF) by the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company Ltd (GTT)

This is according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Justin Nedd, who spoke to the Guyana Chronicle on the sidelines of a media press conference on Tuesday.
He said that as the country approaches the full liberalisation of the telecoms sector, this transformation can clear the way for initiatives such as the USF. Around the world, the USF is used to provide affordable telecommunications services for low-income households and to maintain telecommunications and broadband networks in rural areas.

The process sees telecommunications service providers paying a percentage of their revenues into the USF to fund the project. “With liberalisation, it creates the opportunity for GTT with other players to supply the hinterland and we certainly look forward to using mechanisms that are used in other parts of the world such as the Universal Service Fund, so that we can work with the government to get funds to supply the hinterland area,” Nedd told the newspaper.

Nedd stated that in Guyana’s case, with a population density of four persons per square kilometer, unserved areas could receive internet access though small contributions from those in urban areas. “The Universal Service Fund is basically the folks in Georgetown contributing a small part of their bill, so that the people in some of the outlying areas where it’s not as economically feasible to service, take that fund from [perhaps] the Georgetown folks and dedicate it to the people in the hinterland,” he explained, adding: “It’s not an original concept. It’s used everywhere in the U.S., Canada, [through mechanisms such as] the Connect America Fund (CAF) and it works, because it helps to shift the distribution of wealth from some of the most densely populated areas to the less populated areas.”

Although GTT provides its services to a few hinterland communities, Nedd said that the company still faces a challenge in acquiring the resources to supply sparsely populated areas. “The capital expenditure for things in terms of technology is big dollars, so sometimes companies struggle to spend 10 million dollars to supply services to 500 people and that is the case of our rural situation in Guyana. In fact, Guyana is in the bottom 20 in terms of least densely populated countries in the world,” he said.

Nedd then continued: “We have to do things differently. We absolutely must connect them and I believe that Minister Cathy Hughes and the team at the National Data Management Authority have done a fantastic job at getting people connected, but we look forward to looking at more innovative solutions.”

Some of the areas where GTT has set up its services include Annai, Kurupukari, Orealla, Kwakwani and it is now assessing additional areas to deploy similar services. Meanwhile, although the USF is not yet a reality, the CEO said: “We’re certainly working with the government and it’s a matter of discussion. So, some of the stuff that we do right now we just do it because we need to get the people connected.”