Guyana

Communications

Guyana International Telecommunications Corporation (Guyintel) satellite ground station at Georgetown
Courtesy Embassy of Guyana, Washington

Guyana's communications system was on par with its underdeveloped transportation system. There were 27,000 telephones in use in 1983, or 3.3 per 100 people. Two Japanese companies installed a telephone system in 1987, but the telephone network still required an estimated US$150 million in repairs and improvements as of 1988. International direct dialing was available, but calling Guyana from the United States required repeated efforts.

Tele Network, a company from the United States Virgin Islands, agreed to take a majority interest in a telecommunications joint venture starting in late 1990, according to the United States Embassy. The state-owned Guyana Telecommunications Corporation also reached an agreement with a Canadian company, Northern Telecommunications, to rehabilitate the telephone infrastructure, according to Guyana Business.

Georgetown had two privately owned television stations that relayed United States programming picked up from satellites and one government-operated station in 1991. The government also operated two amplitude modulation (AM) radio stations in the capital and two frequency modulation (FM) stations, one in Georgetown and one in Lethem.

Data as of January 1992