Local company Green Gibraltar gets telecommunications licence

…PM hopeful new competition would result in better quality telecoms services

Locally-owned Green Gibraltar is the new provider in Guyana’s liberalised telecommunications sector after being presented with its telecommunication licence by Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, on Friday afternoon.
During a simple ceremony in the boardroom of the Prime Minister’s Office, the senior Government official said that he was happy to welcome the local company. The Prime Minister has responsibility for the telecommunication sector in Guyana.
PM Phillips added that it is his hope that the increased competition in the local telecommunications sector will result in better quality service to Guyanese. To this end, he disclosed that efforts would be undertaken to ensure this happens.
“The PUC (Public Utility Commission) will play its role to ensure that all the concerns within the sector by Guyanese are addressed and they will work with operators to ensure that better quality is arrived at within the shortest time,” the Prime Minister stated.

The licence was presented to directors of the company, Jai Narine Singh and David Mahmalji.
The directors explained that the company will now work on its rollout plan and will make a public statement soon.
Chairperson of the Public Utilities Commission, Dela Britton, and Director of the Telecommunications Agency of Guyana, Andre Griffith, were both present to witness the company receiving its licence to operate in the local telecommunication sector.
However, Friday’s handing over of the telecommunication licence to Green Gibraltar comes on the heels of a public tiff with the Prime Minister’s Office after the company went ahead and prematurely announced in October last year that it was granted the licence to operate in the sector.
Just over two months of entering office, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government in October 2020 issued commencement orders for the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in Guyana thus opening up massive business opportunities for new entrants in the ICT and ICT-enabled businesses to operate locally.
Green Gibraltar Incorporated, which is a 100 per cent Guyanese owned company established in 2019, subsequently submitted an application for the provision of cellular services in Guyana.
In a notice published in the local media last October, it was indicated that the company had applied for the granting of an individual licence to operate a public telecommunications network and offer a public mobile telecommunications service in seven of Guyana’s 10 administrative regions, that is, Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven and 10.
Additionally, it was stated too that the company also applied for frequency authorisation to use spectrum and to install and operate radio communication equipment in the operating of the network and service.
Moreover, Prime Minister Phillips on the one-year anniversary of liberalisation last year had disclosed, “Government is currently in the advanced stages of awarding another telecommunications licence for a 5G carrier.”
The new telecoms provider had previously stated that two companies, MHM Holdings GY Inc, and Green Gibraltar Inc, led by Guyanese entrepreneurs, in 2019 resolved to improve the limited and poor-quality cellular service in the country.
A formal application was submitted in January of 2021 in response to the Telecom Liberalisation act.
“After two years of hard work and sound investments, the companies have now assembled an industry leading team of financial and technical partners… Green Gibraltar Inc, MHM Holdings GY Inc, and their partners understand the desire of Guyana’s citizens and businesses to have an option to connect with the world in a professional and cost-effective manner.” (G8)