After many years of delays and legal challenges, Guyana's 2016 Telecommunications Act was brought into force in October 2020 by the newly elected government of the People’s Party Progressive (PPP).
The end of the 31-year monopoly held by the fixed-line incumbent Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) occurred just two months after the PPP took power from the APNU+AFC coalition, which had signed a non-binding agreement with GTT in 2019 to liberalise Guyana’s telecoms market but failed to take any concrete action to make it happen.
The Telecommunications Act sets out a framework for enabling competition across all segments of the telecommunications sector in Guyana. The mobile market has been open to competition since 2001, but only one operator, Digicel Guyana, has successfully launched competing GSM and 3G services. While Digicel quickly built a small lead in the mobile market, it remains a duopoly, and penetration levels are well below those of other countries in the region. The Telecommunications Act presents the country with the potential to benefit from a more level playing field that may attract new players, but nevertheless Guyana’s relatively small size and low GDP may restrict it from reaching its full potential for some more years to come.
This report includes the regulator's annual report (last published in 2018), the ITU's 2020 market data, operator data to Q2 2021, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, an assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on the telecoms sector, and other recent market developments.
Key developments:
- The 2016 Telecommunications Act was finally enacted by Parliament in October 2020.
- The start of oil sales in 2020 is expected to accelerate growth in the telecommunications sector as a result of the trickle-down effect increasing disposable incomes.
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Developing Telecoms market report summaries are produced in partnership with BuddeComm, the world’s largest continually updated online telecommunications research service.
The above article is a summary of the following BuddeComm report:
Report title: Guyana - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses
Edition: September 2021
Lead Analyst: Stephen Marshall
Number of pages: 90
Companies mentioned in this report: Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT), Digicel Guyana
Single User PDF Licence Price: US$890
For more information or to purchase a copy of the full report please use the following link: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Guyana-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?r=83
