Internet services What the People Say about:
By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
August 12, 2002
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Since the launching of the Americas 11 cable, which facilitates the transmission of internet data across continents, there have been numerous disruptions in the service to internet users over the past two years. Last Monday, a similar disruption occurred. There have been other grouses about internet services which are increasingly being used to facilitate overseas calls. In light of this we asked the man/woman-in-the-street whether they were satisfied with the present internet services. These were their opinions:

Ralph Zephyr -teacher:

‘I am not satisfied with the services, look at the current speed we connect at with GT&T. We can only connect at 56K and that is too slow, especially if you need to access information. There should definitely be some sort of upgrade. The wireless service should be made more widely available rather than the analog services they currently offer. I guess the service is acceptable or reasonable, but for the time this service has been offered, for several years, it should be better, but there has not been any improvement.’

Cecil Harry - photographer:

‘I have had no problems. It’s less costly now and very reliable. You can see how your money is going. I have not really experienced any problems, but there was a time when the (Americas 11) cable was damaged and the service was down for a very long time. But besides that it’s fast, cheap, easy and reliable. But I think they can upgrade the standard a little bit. There is also need for competition, there needs to be competitiveness, but there is no competition now.’

Juliet Duncan - seamstress:

‘It’s very reasonable, it’s much cheaper and it’s more comfortable. Sometimes there is a little breakage, that’s the only problem. I think there needs to be a little more improvement so that doesn’t occur so often. The speed is fine, it’s okay, I don’t have a problem with that.’


Keemo Fyffe - inspector:

‘I am satisfied to an extent. Sometimes there are bad connections, and that is basically the only problem. But sometimes the connections are slow, the problems lie with GT&T and I believe they should take some steps towards upgrading it. The phone calls being possible through the internet, I believe that is one of the reasons they don’t want to upgrade the service, competition. But they need to improve it, to move Guyana forward. We are still way behind in communication.’

Fiona Sukhu - hairdresser:

‘I use the service and so far I am very much satisfied. It’s good communication and less expensive. It’s very fast and I have never experienced any problems. For me it’s very prompt, I don’t have any problems.’


Mark Major - cartographer/drafts-man:

‘I am satisfied with the service but I feel there is some room for improvement. For instance when you try to gain access to certain information, sometimes you have to wait a very long time and it can be a bit frustrating. I feel we should be able to get faster access to information.
And look at the calls through the internet, sometimes there is a terrible feedback which causes interruptions. It’s very difficult to hear at times. I believe that this might cause some people to discontinue using the service in the future. But in general, it’s fairly okay.’

Renatta Laundry - university student:

‘I think the internet services are alright but it needs a whole lot of improvement, considering that we are in the 21st century. The services would be vastly improved if people could use the wireless connections instead of the dial-up. Too many of the web pages are unavailable when you go to do some simple stuff, like E-mail, ‘we are sorry Yahoo is not available,’ or ‘Excite’ for instance. Sometimes you spend a whole 15-20 minutes trying to get on, it’s very frustrating and time consuming. It’s ludicrous that we have to wait so long.’

Devon John - photo technician:

‘The internet service is coming around. It’s not perfect but we are getting there. I am satisfied to an extent. They’re making some efforts because the service is not perfect. At times, you try to get on and you can’t. They should work to improve their system, to get a faster linkage because the connections are very slow. Sometimes you pay for an hour and you only get 35 minutes because the connection is slow.’