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Govt. Fiber Optic Cable for testing in August

Jun 26, 2012 News

…OP unit forced to borrow staff, vehicles to finish project-Ramotar

By Gary Eleazar

The Guyana Government’s LTE Fiber Optic Cable programme is currently some 90 per cent complete. Testing of the network will commence early August.
This revelation was made by the Programme’s Director, Alexei Ramotar, who, during a brief interview with this publication yesterday said that the entire length of the cable has been put in place and the technical personnel will now have to “splice” it together.
Asked about the effect of the loss of funds from the 2012 Budgetary Estimates, Ramotar said that they are trying their best. He lamented the resort of having to borrow.
Ramotar insists that the team is committed to the project and is forging ahead with the help of other state agencies.
The Project manager, Alexei Ramotar, explained that the Office of the President outfit has been relegated to borrowing staff and vehicles to complete the project.
Ramotar says that this has been happening on a month to month basis and while the way forward as it relates to funding remains unclear, Ramotar says, “We are trying…we are doing what we can.”
All of the drivers and other ancillary staff for the project are currently on loan to the fiber optic cable unit from other agencies within the government.
He said that the unit does have money in its coffers for payments to be made to Huawei out of China.
Ramotar explained that the Chinese company which was hired to execute one component of the project is paid in tranches for works which it would have completed hence this aspect of financing for the project has not been affected.
The project, which commenced at the start of last year, is intended to boost the government’s ability to carry out its “e-governance” strategy.
The 560-kilometre cable was laid in six blocks– from Lethem to Annai, from Annai to Kurupukari, from Kurupukari to Mabura, Mabura to Wisroc, Wisroc to Providence and then from Providence to Georgetown.
Five repeater stations need to be constructed with the most advanced one being based in Linden. The cable was laid in 10-kilometre stretches, and as a result, connecting “joint boxes” where the splicing will be done, also had to be constructed at 10-kilometre intervals.
The project is part of the government’s plan to improve internet access in Guyana and would have a direct impact on the One Laptop Per family Project through which the government hopes to provide free internet access to all communities across the country.
The landing of the cable was done by MMC, Dax Contracting and Dynamic Engineering, which were responsible for burying cables along the route and they used Guyana Power and Light (GPL) poles to suspend the cables where necessary.
The design of the project was carried out by E-Networks (Guyana), Huawei (China) and Oi (Brazil).
The project came shortly after GT&T landed a US$60M fibre optic cable from Suriname.

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