| The recent feud between the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) Company and Internet café owners all across Guyana may have found some solution, as the phone company has reportedly had high level discussions with the Internet Interest Holders Group (IIHG), a group concerned with protecting the rights of Internet café owners.The discussions between the two parties may see the implementation of a plan to allow the Internet cafés to remain in operation by purchasing their minutes for making overseas calls directly from GT&T.According to the official spokesperson of the IIHG, Stephen Thompson, this could take effect before the end of the month. He said that,Wholesale Jerseys, at present, some technical issues were being sorted out.He noted that this move will allow the Government to obtain revenue which was being lost in the old system of providing overseas calls through Internet cafés via taxation of these calls.The IIHG had previously said that it would comply with reasonable taxation,Jerseys China Wholesale, as long as it was determined by legislation. Thompson added that the recent meetings between GT&T and the IIHG also resulted in removing some of the “restrictions that paralysed the VOIP sector (Internet cafes and other users of voice technology),Cheap NBA Jerseys China,” but he noted that GT&T still blocks VPNs and other related services (Yahoo YapJack) on DSL.While these discussions have,Cheap Jerseys From China, in the interim, been kept quiet, official word of the agreement between the telephone company and the IIHG is expected tomorrow.This silence has led to significant confusion on the part of Internet café owners, who do not know what was going on, and whether or not they will be able to keep their businesses in existence. There have been reports that GT&T has been blocking certain Internet cafés which are still providing overseas calls.When GT&T had, last year, begun to block Voice Over Internet Protocols (VOIPs) on Dialup and on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs),China Jerseys Cheap, it had drawn strong criticism from the IIHG. They said that there are approximately 600 Internet cafes in operation in Guyana, which provide some 7200 persons with a livelihood.One such owner, who asked not to be named,Wholesale Jerseys Online, said that his VPN had been blocked since Thursday, and as such he was unable to make any calls from his café. He shut down operations since then, losing an estimated $40,000 in income.“I don’t mind toeing the line for some time,” he said,cheap nfl jerseys china, “but it does not look like GT&T wants to see us (Internet cafés) exist.”He added that his Internet café is what kept food on the table for himself and his family. The Office of the President had said last year that, “The Government will keep the situation under review, and continue to work on the establishment of a relevant licensing, legal and regulatory regime that takes account of the dynamism of technological changes in the telecommunications sector, while ensuring continued growth and development of good quality, reasonably priced services in Guyana.” |
