Prime Minister complains of ‘poor’ telecommunications services, asks PUC to take action  

Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillip has expressed “extreme concern” on behalf of the government as it relates to what he said were numerous reports of poor-quality telecommunications services.

In a letter to the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Dela Britton, the Prime Minister said most of the complaints include fixed and mobile broadband Internet services.

On a daily basis, Guyanese can be found using social media to vent their frustration amid claims of being robbed, cheated and made victims of a very weak and slow telecommunication service.

“I am advised that institution of appropriate technical Quality of Service Standards is a necessary part of the solution to this issue,” the letter noted.

As a consequence, the PM has asked the Commission to examine the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection) Regulations 2020 with a view to amending Schedules 1 and 2 to include, at a minimum, new Quality of Service Parameters with appropriate definitions and standards.

“I shall be following up on the procedural requirements for effecting the amendments in the near future,” the Prime Minister stated in his letter.

The amendments will address quality of service parameters for availability, packet loss ratio (upload and download), average throughout for packet data, latency and jitter.

In explanatory notes, the Prime Minister pointed out that ‘availability’ has to do with the time the service is actually available; ‘packet loss ratio’ refers to the limitation on data; ‘average throughout for packet data’ is about speed and will force operators to pay attention to their network design and subscription levels while latency is the delay between sending a packet of data and jitter is the variation in delay.