A plan for the stringing of a fibre optic cable network across Guyana’s coastland was the centre of discussions when President Bharrat Jagdeo met representatives from Hauwei Technologies, China’s largest networking and telecommunications equipment supplier, at his office last week.
The representatives included the company’s president Guan Jun, senior consultant Bu Shi, general manager Stephen Guo and solutions manager Peng Zhao Yong, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a release. They were accompanied by attorney-at-law Sanjeev Datadin.
Hauwei is a private enterprise which specialises in the research and development, production and marketing of communications equipment, and the provision of customised network services for telecoms carriers.
The company serves 31 of the top 50 telecoms operators and puts 10 per cent of its revenue into research and development each year.
President Jagdeo has said previously that the availability of more reliable bandwidth in Guyana has the potential for creating tens of thousands of jobs and the country has been moving closer to this goal.
GINA said that a significant step to be on par with the rest of the world was made with modern telecommunication services when the long-awaited shore-end landing works of the Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System (SG-SCS) entered Guyana on January 9.
In the meantime, government was working on bringing in another cable, this time from Brazil, and had already signed the necessary contract for the purchase of the bandwidth which President Jagdeo had given the assurance would be a fraction of the cost paid for bandwidth at present, GINA stated.