GTT to invest GY$10 billion in further expanding fibre-optic network

Last Updated on Thursday, 13 October 2022, 22:16 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) on Thursday announced that it intends to invest GY$10  billion in its fibre-optic network over the next two years to serve the overwhelming majority of Guyanese.

Chief Operating Officer of Home and Fixed Solutions, Eshwar Thakurdin said in two years an additional 80,000 homes would have access to the fibre-optic cable distributed Internet. “What that effectively means is that we would be covering 75 percent of all homes and businesses in Guyana. To put differently, every three in four homes in Guyana will have access to GTT fibre by 2024,” he said.

He said so far that land and mobile telecommunications company has invested GY$22 billion and its expansion programme would cost GY$10 billion over the next two years.

Mr Thakurdin boasted that the network being built out by a 90 percent workforce-more than 150 men and women- has so far surpassed the availability to more than 100,000 homes in West Demerara. “We commit to leveraging and developing local content; our very own Guyanese talent to do the work,” he said.

He added that during the past 12 months, GTT has actually connected 25,000 homes and businesses on the West and East Coast Demerara Georgetown, Berbice, East Bank Demerara and for the first time Linden. He announced that a “major roll-out” in Berbice with the first stops being New Amsterdam and Berbice.

The senior company official said among its signature achievements in West Demerara was achieving the availability of fibre optic Internet to 100,000 residents and businesses in Uitvlugt. Among the new features that the telecoms company has been offering is the movement of landline numbers from the copper network to fibre bundled with free calling minutes.

Earlier this year, GTT hired 20 aspiring technicians were trained and equipped to boost the company’s fibre installation rates allowing the company to connect thousands of fibre customers, many during the same day.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Phillips credited government with further development and expansion of new and improved telecommunications sector by liberalising it in October 2020. “Further, this liberalisation places our country on the global standard and encourages our existing operators to optimise their own services,” he said.