GUYANESE yesterday took another significant step in the ’technology era’ with the launching of the Short Message Service (SMS) Service by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T), even as the engineering team work to increase mobile capacity net work before next month end and officials negotiate to offer another exciting feature.
Marketing Manager Michael George, delivering an overview of the project at the launching, informed an impressive gathering that included Prime Minister Sam Hinds and West Indies Vice Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, at Telephone House, Upper Brickdam, that “These are exciting times for GT &T and exciting times for the customers we are so committed to serving.”
The Marketing Manager stated that the capacity of their mobile network will be increased by approximately 40%, underscoring their undying commitment to meet the demand for good quality service and pointed out that the engineers are literally working round the clock to realize this achievement.
He announced, “Also on our doorstep is providing seamless international roaming to our customers.”
“We are in the midst of ongoing negotiations that would enable Cellink customers to walk with their instrument when traveling overseas and to be able to use it in other countries while maintaining his/her existing cell phone number,” Mr. Michael George said, hailing it as, “Great news for road warriors, regular business travelers and vacationers alike.”
Noting that the latest information coming out from GT&T’s Data Processing Department revealed 106,000 mobile customers on the network, he said, “After much technical and administrative planning, to ensure that the very best service is delivered, I cannot over emphasize the humble pleasure that the Management and staff of GT&T are experiencing as we prepare to unveil these services to our valued and deserving consumers. Customers that are quite technology savvy and in no event would accept no les from us”
Pointing to the network that has “almost seamless coverage from Skeldon to our most recent installation at Charity, and as far South as Linden” he reiterated that it is not by accident.
“As with wire-line service we are continuingly listening to calls from the Guyanese public for newer, faster and more reliable service now and I guarantee you that we will continue to meet and surpass their every expectation” he promised.
SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE - SMS
The SMS gives the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile phone in real near time. The messages are not limited to simple text but also allow the mobile phone to be an extension of the internet by enabling users to send emails from your phone to anyone anywhere in the world via the internet.
According to the Marketing Manager, SMS allows the exchange of ring tones and logos and opens the user to the massive world of SMS content such as news, sports and other forms of entertainment and advertising.
It also possible, to send an email message from any computer any where in the world to your mobile phone, he added.
Though the latter service is technically available we have asked the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to re-examine the true cost of delivering this very powerful and essential part of the SMS family of service, he noted.
“This is truly unleashing the power of mobile phone from simply being a means of talking to colleagues and friends, and transforming it into a total and ubiquitous communications device” he declared.
There is no activation charge for this service and all customers by default will have the ability to receive SMS messages, however to send messages post paid customers will have a choice of four plans while pre-paid customers will be charged a “per message” rate.
SMS utilizes less network capacity than voice traffic and the price associated with SMS is significantly below the price associated with voice calls.
VOICE MAIL
GT&T is also anxious to satisfy the obvious demand for voice mail services and this service is available for cellular customers from yesterday as part of SMS Service. It will be available within one week to land line customers, Mr. George said.
The mobile voice mail operates in an identical manner to a wire line system with the calling party being directed to the customer’s voicemail after a specified number of rings, he explained.
There in no activation or fixed monthly charge for this service, however there is a low access charge to recover voice mail messages, clear and administer mailbox.
The Marketing Manager expressed the hope that the outstanding issues with the Public Utilities Commission will be resolved quickly so that messages sent from Internet to mobile can commence shortly.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds who delivered some brief remarks at the launching commended GT&T for the step and noted that it demonstrated Guyana being up to date with changes across the world.
The PM said that Guyana has joined other countries where the cell users exceed landline customers and described this, as an indication that Guyanese are eager to identify with what is modern.
The PM noted that GT&T might be reading the tea leaves of things to come, and putting it self in a good position to be competitive because the Government will persevere in arriving as soon as possible to the time when monopolies will end and there will be open competitive free market regime.