Government eyes partnership with private investor for new subsea cable Hope to drive down broadband prices
The Coalition Government plans to seek private investors as partners for laying a new subsea cable following telecommunications liberalisation, which has been promised by year end.
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, said that the new subsea cable is part of a wider conceptualization that is outside of the works to be executed under broadband expansion project through the $36.5M loan agreement signed with China.
The project will rely on the existing broadband services provided via the lone subsea cable that is owned and operated by GTT. However, Government is concerned about the absence of redundancy in the system. In essence, if there is an outage along GTT’s cable, then the entire country will experience an internet blackout.
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes, stated that under the broadband loan with China, Government is looking to connect Georgetown with Lethem via Timehri. She anticipates that the pursuit of the subsea cable will drive down prices for broadband services.
“The subsea cable, we hope, we will be able to get a private investor that will be able to buy into that concept. Of course, we are working to have expressions of interest being in the public domain and issued as soon as we have completed our liberalisaton and the 2016 telecommunications legislation comes fully into force”, Hughes said.
In August, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications announced that Cable network provider, E-Networks Inc. was not authorized to land a subsea internet cable.
The Ministry said that it took note of the publication of a notice to mariners by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), published in the newspapers indicating that maritime surveys shall be conducted by two vessels “on behalf of E-Networks Inc. as preparatory works for subsea cable laying within the Guyana Maritime Zone”.
The Ministry said that while the interest of investors in the sector in general is welcome, no licence for the laying and landing of a subsea cable system has been granted to E-Networks Inc.
In fact, any companies now in possession of a telecoms licence will have to comply with new laws in place since 2016.
After much trouble, the Coalition Government finally passed amended laws in 2016 allowed for other companies to compete against GTT and Digicel.
However, Government is still in consultations/negotiations with the US-owned GTT, which holds the monopoly on landline and international calls. Government wants other companies to offer faster internet, and more options, even landing more internet cables.
Cable and Wireless Networks, a US-controlled company, has signalled an interest on re-entering the Guyana market. The Ministry of Public Telecommunications has disclosed that it has hosted a meeting with the former UK-owned telephone company, which was officially acquired by Liberty Global on May 16, 2016.
Visiting Guyana for the meeting was Dennis Waters, Vice President of Subsea Systems, Cable and Wireless Networks.
It was disclosed that C&W is currently laying the groundwork for ‘serious investments’ including a new local submarine network. The company said it has already engaged a local partner. C&W is describing itself as a wholesale telecommunications service provider that offers broadband and IP capacity services to telecommunications carriers, TV cable companies, Internet Service Providers and Network Integrators.
Guyana currently has two telephone companies: Digicel and GTT.
(Kaieteur News)