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Jamaica: Government Awards Two Fibre-Optic Licences for Data Services

Posted on: Friday, 7 January 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency on 6 January

Kingston, Jamaica: The Cable and Wireless monopoly on data services came to an end on Wednesday [5 January] with the announcement that government has awarded two new undersea fibre- optic licences.

For a combined total investment of 5bn JD [Jamaican dollars], FibraLink Jamaica Limited and Trans Caribbean Cable Company Limited now have the right to lay two fibre optic cables that should see consumers getting cheaper, more efficient information and communication technology services.

Fibralink Jamaica is a joint venture company that is 66 per cent foreign owned and 33 per cent owned by local-based Merit Communications Limited.

Trans Caribbean, already active in the rest of the region is a consortium of more than 30 foreign and local telecommunications carriers and service providers, including AT and T, Verizon and Digicel.

Both of the new licensees are promising a reduction of 70 per cent in prices for high-speed Internet services by the end of the first year of operation, based on competitive demand.

To provide additional guarantees of this, the government has built this requirement into the licence agreements. Technology Minister Philip Paulwell naturally sees this investment by both companies as a sign of confidence in the revenue potential of the island as a hub of telecommunications services in the region.

"Jamaica really is going to be the centre of a massive network of broadband communications and that will indeed enable us not only to experience this tremendous competition that will result in lower prices but really for the world to see us as the centre for telecommunications," he said.

The new fibre-optic system will see the creation of four new entry points into the Cable and Wireless undersea network currently encircling the island.

One cable will link into the Bahamian cable system and therefore into North America, another will link into South America and the region. Paulwell also pointed out that the new undersea routes would reduce the country's shortage of international telephone connectivity, which has long been a sore point for many local Internet Service Providers and consumers.

Source: BBC Monitoring Americas

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