GTT announces hiked DSL service rates

GTT has announced increased rates for its Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service for residential and business use, beginning January 1, 2018.
In a notice published in several newspapers, the company said, “GTT has tried to maintain prices of our services despite the increasing cost of running the business due to factors outside of our control. It is, therefore, with deep regret that we announce that we will be increasing our prices for residential and business DSL service.”
GTT said while giving the four-week advance notice to its customers that the new rates would be reflected on their February 2019 bills.
The increases range between $300 and $400.
Bills which ranged from $6299 to $9999 will be increased by $300, while bills ranging from $11,399 to $19,399 will be hiked by $400.
Back in June last year, the company’s request to increase landline rates and reduce international call rates was approved by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). That hike took effect from August 1, 2017 while the reduction in international call rates took effect from July 1, 2017 although approved on June 9, 2017.
Those rates were being monitored as well as the services provided by the company.
The landline rates were increased on a per minute basis for the first minute or part thereof and on a per second basis after the first minute. Residential lines were being charged $2000 – an increase of $1500. Businesses which paid $1500 are now paying $4000.
Several acts of vandalism this and the previous year which struck the telecommunications company may have contributed to the increased costs for services.
The first act of vandalism was detected on July 14, 2017, one day before GTT officially launched the Blaze fibre-optic high-speed Internet. At one point, the company’s fibre-optic cable was also sabotaged at a time when it launched its high-speed LTE broadband in Essequibo.
The company had also revealed that over a 12-month period from September 2016 onwards, its loss of service and restoration efforts equated to $50 million. There have been prosecutions of persons for the vandalism.
Twenty-two-year-old Ricky Singh of Lot F Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was in August placed on $350,000 bail upon being arraigned in court and denying that between July 22 and July 24, 2017, at Soesdyke, EBD, he was caught vandalising and stealing GTT fibre-optic cable.
Twenty-four-year-old fisherman Sanjay Seecharran of Grove Public Road, EBD has also recently been jailed for three years after confessing to stealing fibre-optic cable from GTT.