He said the Government of Guyana is working to enhance the ICT sector, and the administration is working along with several overseas-based companies in this regard, looking to “unveil the services of the sector”. The Head of State said sums of money have been paid to a US-based company to connect Guyana with Brazil through another fibre optic cable, which will terminate here. He said this venture is expected to be made concrete during the second or third quarter of this year.
The President congratulated GT&T on the landing of the SG-SCS, and expressed the hope that the project will see the disruptions of the Americas II cable become a thing of the past. He said government is committed to working with GT&T in the development of the sector.
GT&T’s CEO, Major General (rtd) Joe Singh said the landing of the SG-SCS is the company’s gift to Guyana. He said the project is the realisation of a vision of the company; delivering a network to Guyana which will last for years. Singh said that the President’s presence at yesterday’s ceremony signals his confidence in the telephone company. He recalled head of GT&T’s parent company Cornelius Prior’s meeting with the President in 2006 when the two discussed Guyana’s ICT strategy, saying it was beginning to bear fruit. He said GT&T had been working on the development and delivery of the project to the Guyanese populace ever since.
Landing of the 1,240 km repeatered submarine fibre optic cable was delayed by five days because of adverse weather conditions in neighboring Suriname as well as tidal conditions which parts of the Guyana coastland experienced. According to GT&T, the cable will connect Guyana and Suriname with Trinidad and Tobago and ultimately, the rest of the world. Some twenty-seven and a half km of cable currently on board a barge positioned outside the Kingston seawall will be carried out to sea and added aspects of the project will see the cable reaching Curipe Bay in Trinidad. The cable will then be connected with neigbouring Suriname and by the end of the year, the facilities in the three countries will be fully connected. GT&T has partnered with Telesur, Global Marine Systems Limited (GMSL) as well as several other companies who participated in various aspects of the project to land the cable here. The facility will make available 3,000 times the current bandwidth capacity in use locally, providing an improvement in the delivery of telecommunications and related services to Guyana.
