The new submarine fibre optic cable being brought ashore in Dominica

ROSEAU, Dominica: The landing of a new submarine fibre optic cable in Dominica on Thursday, December 21, 2006 heralds a new era in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector in the country.

Upon completion, this new submarine fibre optic cable (approx 1900km long) will run through the entire Eastern Caribbean, starting in Puerto Rico and ending in Trinidad, connecting twelve different islands in the eastern Caribbean chain.

The cable will carry 10gbts of data capabilities to Dominica which is more than four times the entire size of the Cable and Wireless cable today. The other cable is being operated on Dominica by Eastern Caribbean Fibre Systems, which is largely owned by Cable and Wireless and France Telecoms.

The new submarine fibre optic cable infrastructure allows the delivery of internet traffic and connectivity at an economically suitable price, i.e. 375 euros per Mbps per month of IP traffic instead of 2,000 euros at present.

Consumers of telecommunications services in Dominica will benefit from increased and better communications between the islands and lower costs in services, namely telephony and the internet.

It is widely recognized that the high cost of internet outbound connectivity has hindered the growth and development of the ICT sector in Dominica.

That is because Caribbean islands are connected to the rest of the world via submarine cables owned by single telecom operators. Each domestic operator keeps bandwidth prices at a very high level. The overall price is 20 times higher than the prices in the US or western European countries.

That situation prompted an ACP Numerique conference held in Guadeloupe on May 31, 2005 hosted by Victorin Lurel, President of the Regionale Council of Guadeloupe and  in the presence of Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Amos Tincani, the decision was made to enhance internet connectivity of St Kitts, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines  and Grenada by extending the Global Caribbean Network(GCN) cable system to other Caribbean islands.

According to the President of the Regionale Council of Guadeloupe, the decision to commit to a submarine optical network “was driven by the wish to serve our region’s growing communications needs, enhancing the delivery of reliable data and broadband services to our citizens at reasonable cost”.

Middle Caribbean Network, part of the Loret Groupe is connecting Martinique and Guadeloupe with a branching unit in Dominica. The total cost of this segment is 7 million euros, while the overall project cost is 90 million euros. This is a joint venture between the Regionale Council of Martinique and the Loret Groupe.

This service will be commercially available in Dominica within sixty days. It is expected that Middle Caribbean Network will sell bandwidth capacity more than 50% cheaper that the current wholesale price to companies like Digicel, SAT Telecommunications, Marpin Telecoms among others. These companies are then expected to pass on the savings to consumers.