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GT&T launches Mobile Money

Guyana Telephone and Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) subscribers can now send and receive cash and pay bills from their mobile handsets with the launch of the company’s ‘Mobile Money’ service and new CEO Radha Krishna Sharma said last evening that it will revolutionise financial transactions in Guyana.

New Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, RK Sharma said the launch of the company’s mobile service is a logical expansion in this highly technological age.

Sharma made the comments Tuesday evening while addressing the gathering at the launch of the mobile money transfer service at the Pegasus Hotel.  Sharma said money transfer schemes have evolved to the next generation of electronic payments, the mobile channel. He noted that advances in technology have enabled alternative functionalities for mobile handsets beyond the original vision of wireless communication to supporting a new channel for mobile financial services.

“What we have is the emergence of mobile airtime as an alternative currency. We at GT&T have every reason to feel a sense of pride to be a part of this transformative architecture,” Sharma said.  He noted that today there are more than 6.7 billion mobile subscriptions and five billion mobile phone users in a global population of seven billion, with 2.4 billion Internet users worldwide. “These are breathtaking innovations in technology and digital culture that has allowed for the migration within a period of less than 20 years of mobile phones from audio to varied complex and far-reaching functionalities that will impact our lives and create empowerment within our political, social, and economic milieu.”

He said that there were also important cascading effects stimulating growth, entrepreneurship, and productivity throughout the economy as a whole. “Ten years ago, Google was still in its formative years, there were no smartphones, no iPods, iPads, Twitter, Facebook, or any of the social media that’s making the world flat and impacting on our quality of life.”

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The Mobile Money service will allow persons to use the money in their phones to pay bills through GT&T’s agreement with the Institute of Private Enterprise and Development (IPED), Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) and Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL). Phase two of the project will include the use of mobile money in supermarkets and international transfers.