By IPS Correspondents
GEORGETOWN, Mar 12 1999 (IPS)

When the government of Guyana privatised the local telephone company back in 1991, it granted a 20-year monopoly to the new American owners for land line and data transmission, effectively blocking all competition.

The move has over the years attracted widespread criticism and charges of abuse of its privilege by the Guyana Consumers Association and other advocate groups.

Now the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is preparing for a major legal test of its monopoly rights and the challenge is coming from Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

This week, Solutions2000, one of the leading Internet companies here, approached the courts and won the first round of what is likely to be a protracted battle to determine whether or not the GT&T had acted properly by blocking its access to the World Wide Web because the company had installed alternative systems to speed up its service.

Justice Desmond Burch-Smith granted a temporary injunction to Solutions2000 restraining GT&T from disconnecting its Internet service.

“Operators are free to set up their own wireless radio links, but the GT&T is under no obligation to have these links connected to the national network.

“The operator has, contrary to its contract with the GT&T, been rerouting traffic by a route other than that established or approved by the company, ” GT&T said in a statement, one day before Solutions went to court.

Solutions’ own satellite dish allows it to downlink data independently of the utility company, but it still must rely on the national network for uplink services.

GT&T had retaliated against the firm after it had recently acquired its own satellite dish to provide customers with what it said was a faster and more efficient service.

But apparently conscious of its own plans to offer similar services and eager to put a halt to any challenge to its monopolistic rights the GT&T, already engaged in several court battles with the regulatory Public Utilities Commission (PUC), said it had no obligation to link Solutions2000 to its national network.

That action left hundreds of subscribers without the ability to open Web pages, accessing only Electronic Mail services for most of this week.

Solutions2000 immediately went to court saying it had the support of two other providers that had also paid fees to an international satellite company.

By Thursday, subscribers were once again free to browse through the Web because GT&T had complied with the court order.

But the dispute continues and an indication of how bitter it is likely to become was contained in a note Edwin Workman, Managing Director of Solutions2000, wrote to his clients this week.

” It should be noted that we the ISPs do not intend to stand idly by and be dictated to or bullied by the GT&T as to what type of service we can offer clients,” the letter said in part.

Workman also lashed out at GT&T for charging exorbitant rates for bandwidths and for being reluctant to supply enough telephone lines for other Internet providers to provide an efficient service.

He said the small Internet providers are prepared to take on the firm, owned by the U.S Virgin Islands-based Atlantic Tele Network (ATN). ATN bought the former Guyana Telecommunications Company for 16.5 million dollars back in January 1991.

Since then it has clashed with the PUC on issues ranging from rate fixing to delays in its expansion programmes. Several cases are pending in court.

But in the case of Solutions 2000, the PUC said its hands are tied.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think the PUC has jurisdiction over the GT&T in this case. This was not a part of the agreement when it was signed back in 1991. Guyana did not have the net then,” notes one PUC official.

In a further bid to protect its turf, the ATN subsidiary said it will also move against local operators offering Call Back international services.

This arrangement allows callers to bypass local lines, call an international company which calls them back and initiates a long distance service at a rate cheaper than the GT&T.

“The company will take whatever steps are necessary to protect its exclusive status,” the statement from the company said.

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