GUYANA-TECHNOLOGY: Telephone Goes to the Interior

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Feb 11 1997 (IPS) - To many people in this South American country’s interior, if they could have one wish turned to reality, it would be to be able to pick up the telephone and call a neighbour.

But for years this dream has remained just that, for the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) has never been able to provide this vital service. But this is about to change.

The GT&T, like its counterpart in the northern Caribbean islands of Jamaica and The Bahamas, is preparing to hook up to state-of- the art wireless or cordless telephones which use radio links rather than the tried and tested physical line system, making it easier to take the service to the neglected interior.

“It is much cheaper than the line system given all what you can do with that system. We are getting ready to test such equipment,” says general manager of GT&T, Tom Minnich.

The initial installation cost of the wireless telephones stands at around 900 dollars, compared to 2,000 dollars for physical lines and requires much less policing.

The new system is being launched in collaboration with Northern Telecom, the Canadian communications giant. It is designed specifically for areas with difficult terrain that would require high maintenance costs under the old system.

The GT&T has targeted the western Essequibo region for its launching around mid-year. The initial installation process is expected to cost some two million dollars.

Hurt by vandals who smashed cables for copper wire when the market prices were high, some companies are hailing this new technology for Guyana as a way around this problem.

The system will be set up in a similar way to those operating in European countries where technicians place a receiving and transmission antenna on subscriber’s roof.

Company officials think there are enormous possibilities for this system in the Caribbean and South America where the mountainous terrain made it difficult to install telephone lines.

Meanwhile, the government-appointed Public Utilities Commission (PUC) says the programme should have been implemented years ago and the government is anxious to see it on its way.

“They should have done that 33 months after privatisation of the company in 1991. It’s all in the expansion work programme that is still to be done,” says Lance McKasky, senior financial analyst at the PUC.

But there are those who think that the whole project is linked to politics. This is an election year and hundreds of supporters of the ruling People’s Progressive Party live in this area and have been calling for telephone service for many years.

Moreover, observers say pressure on the government has been stepped up with the launching of the internet.

The rice farmers in the west want to have access to the internet but know that that process must begin with having a telephone in their homes.

Minnich says the GT&T is excited about the new technology not only because it is proving to be more economical, but because it is simpler to install and the problem of lines being destroyed by vehicles, or vandalised is eliminated.

“This is very important here, along with the problems we have with vandalism. This is the technology of the future,” he says.

The new system will eventually be expanded to other remote areas with the help of satellite links and relay stations.