Summary
Guyana, a small land with about 770,000 inhabitants, is the only English-speaking nation in South America and has close affinities to the Caribbean region. It is one of Latin America's poorer countries, with the third lowest GDP per capita in the region after Haiti and Nicaragua.
Guyana's fixed-line teledensity is about average for Latin America, while mobile penetration is slightly higher than the regional average. In fact, both are much higher than would be expected given the country's poor economic indicators. Guyana has also a surprisingly large number of Internet users, thanks to cheap Internet cafés that also offer VoIP services.
Broadband uptake, however, has been negligible. Bandwidth is scarce, and access is slow and costly. Both DSL and wireless technologies are available, but the number of broadband subscribers is small. Most Internet access is still via dial-up. Internet connection is frequently disrupted by damage to the Americas II submarine cable.
A new Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System, scheduled for completion in mid-2010, will vastly increase bandwidth capacity in Guyana, boosting Internet speed by some 3,000 times. As a result, DSL access should become cheaper and faster, and we are likely to see subscriber figures soar. Nevertheless, although prices will decrease, they are likely to remain comparatively high. Broadband growth is bound to remain limited until the country has some competition in the market.
Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T), controlled by Atlantic Tele-Network Ltd (ATN), holds an exclusive licence for fixed-line services, but has a non-exclusive licence for mobile telephony; ISP services are open to competition.
In the mobile sector, Digicel is the mobile market leader, having overtaken GT&T only two years after entering the Guyanese market.
Guyana has a large number of ISPs, but GT&T is the only Internet access provider. It sells Internet access to ISPs, which resell it to individuals.
Market highlights:
Negotiations are under way to liberalise the Guyanese fixed-line voice and data markets
The Guyanese government is looking to sell its 20% stake in GT&T, but ATN has refused the government's offer.
The government is keen to develop the country's Information Communication Technology (ICT); for this purpose, it has indicated its intention to subsidise the cost of Internet bandwidth.
Table of Contents
1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
2.1 Country overview
3. Telecommunications market
3.1 Overview of Guyana's telecom market
4. Regulatory environment
4.1 Background
4.2 Regulatory authorities
4.2.1 Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
4.2.2 National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU)
4.3 Privatisation of GT&T
4.4 Telecom sector liberalisation in Guyana
5. Fixed network operator in Guyana
5.1 Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T)
6. Telecommunications infrastructure
6.1 National telecom network
6.1.1 Fixed-line statistics
6.2 International
6.2.1 Submarine cable networks
6.2.2 Satellite networks
7. Internet market
7.1 Overview
7.1.1 Internet statistics
8. Broadband market
8.1 Overview
9. Mobile communications
9.1 Overview of Guyana's mobile market
9.1.1 Mobile statistics
9.2 Mobile technologies and mobile data services
9.3 Major mobile operators
9.3.1 Digicel Guyana
9.3.2 Cellink (GT&T)
9.4 Mobile voice services
9.4.1 Satellite mobile
10. Related reports
Table 1-Country statistics Guyana-2009
Table 2-Telephone network statistics-2009
Table 3-Internet user statistics-2009
Table 4-Broadband statistics-2009
Table 5-Mobile statistics-2009
Table 6-National telecommunications authority
Table 7-Evolution of GDP in Guyana-2000-2010
Table 8-Fixed lines in service and teledensity-1997-2010
Table 9-Internet users and user penetration rate-1997-2010
Table 10-Mobile subscribers and penetration rate-1998-2010
Table 11-Mobile market share by operator-2004-2009
Table 12-Digicel mobile subscribers-2004-2009
Table 13-GT&T mobile subscribers-2003-2009
