Nearshore Americas
GTT Guyana

At Last, GTT Rolls Out High-Speed Broadband Service in Guyana

Guyana’s telecom major GTT has rolled out high-speed fibre broadband service after investing $2 billion (US$9,581,450) in upgrading the network.

Despite the increase in speed, new connections will cost much less than the previous broadband plans, noted company officials in a statement.

“Our new plans of Fibre50, Fibre100, and Fibre150 provide more than double the speed of the previous Blaze plans … at a lower cost,” said Eshwar Thakurdin, COO at GTT.

GTT launched Guyana’s first submarine fibre optic cable in early 2000 under the brand name “emagine”. But the broadband service in the country was notoriously slow.

Fewer customers and lack of completion among telcos were also the factors behind the delay in the rollout of high-speed networks, say analysts.

With a subscriber base exceeding 300,000, GTT is a monopoly in Guyana’s telecom market. GTT competes with Digicel in the wireless sector but is the only carrier when it comes to fixed-line service.

In August 2020, the South American country liberalized the telecom sector, stoking competition in the market starved of investment.

As the monopoly broke up, Digicel sought for license to launch fixed-line service, as it was already armed with submarine cables connecting the country with the outside world.

“All of the previous plans will now see the speed doubling with a more stable and reliable service,” Thakurdin said, adding that fibre service is best suited to entrepreneurs.

The telco is hoping sign up 10,000 new customers to its fibre network by the end of this year.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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