The telecommunications sector is

madness

The telecommunications sector is perhaps the most profitable but also the most unregulated. We have seen the burgeoning internet cafes and the various wireless networks that provide internet services outside the realm of the established service providers.
Indeed, their presence, like that of EZjet was most welcomed because people were paying a lot of money to talk with their overseas-based relatives. Back then it cost as much as $100 for one minute of conversation. Indeed, it was at first a welcome arrangement because it was almost an impossible task to talk to those relatives overseas.
When the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company came on the scene it established a number of systems that made communications easy. It established links with service providers overseas and applied rates that were applicable.
The disadvantage was that the people who lived overseas were being asked a small percentage of their earnings for telephone calls when compared with what Guyanese had to pay. But the mere idea that they could talk to their overseas-based relatives and friends, as far as the Guyanese were concerned, was worth every dime.
But in the United States there was a move to attack what the regulators called unfair competition; monopolies had already been dismantled so technology brought in a number of telecommunication providers that were offering links at a cheaper rate. Guyana automatically benefitted but as would be the case in developing countries the provider would capitalize because there was no regulation on what the provider could charge for international calls.
These internet service providers, given the monopoly had to approach the telephone company for lines which they used to access external providers that were offering cheap rates. Some went beyond and established their own satellite network to access the outside world without the assistance of the monopoly service provider.
Today there are implements like the Magic Jack that routs calls away from the service provider for a fraction of the cost to the user. It was not long before they sprang up all over the place and advertised as though they were established and had a right to operate. And because of a lack of regulation they operated to the point where they put up signboards advertising their rates.
As can be expected, the GT&T brought its rates down to the point where calls were very inexpensive. Before that, as a means of competing with the internet cafes, it had been offering peak and off peak rates. Today, international calls are cheap but there is so much leakage. Certainly the government is leaking revenue but this is to be expected if the government wants to show that the cost of living is lower than it actually is. It is also necessary if it wants to create the illusion that people have more disposable income than they really have.
The Forbes Burnham government did the same thing. It allowed smuggled goods into the country so that these could be retailed cheaper than they normally would and people would access these and feel that goods were cheap. This is one way of making necessities available to the people and so keep them happy.
In the end as far as the telecommunication sector is concerned, technology is making the establishment as redundant as the fifth wheel on a coach. There have been inventions such as Skype and Yahoo chat that allow talk without the use of the telephone and at little or no cost. However, to access these services they still need the service provider and technology that allows access to these services.
It is interesting that the service providers actually support the internet cafes. They sell bandwidth at a rate much cheaper than they sell the domestic consumer. To do this suggests that homeowners and businesses that make overseas calls provide a profit.
What is interesting is that Guyana must be the only country in the world where people advertise that they are operating outside the service provider and are doing so with impunity. The reality is that the telecommunication sector is unregulated and it is only a matter of time before chaos prevails.