Govt. is ideal architect for data centre

Nov 23, 2012 News

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– Former GT&T boss

In recognition of the fact that the entire field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is capital intensive, government may very well be the ideal mastermind behind the introduction of a data centre. This is the assertion of former Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Chief Executive Officer, Yog Mahadeo.

Mahadeo made this disclosure despite his conviction that such undertakings should in fact be private sector-driven.  His belief is that government should ideally hold the regulatory role in this regard.
“Notwithstanding that, if government has to give a kick in the right direction, then maybe they are the right ones to start the process, but ultimately I feel it must be the private sector,” said Mahadeo during an interview.
According to him, since communication and telecommunication requires tens of millions of United States dollars per annum, any development in such areas would demand that sizeable sums, in terms of a budget, are available. He pointed to the fact, too, that the process of ICT development is sometimes ‘potholed’ by a number of reasons, such as the constant advancement of technology.
He stressed that “the pace of technology is so fast, by the time you plan and implement X-piece of equipment, it might already be obsolete and companies across the world face this challenge.”
Mahadeo alluded to the efforts of the United States-based Verizon which had thrown in some US$500 million to try out Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WiMAX). Better known by its acronym, WiMAX was initially a wireless communications standard designed to provide 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates. Its 2011 update provided up to one gigabit-per-second for fixed stations. Another company on the other hand sought to plug all of its resources into High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Mahadeo explained.
HSPA is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that extends and improves the performance of existing third generation mobile telecommunication networks, utilizing the (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) protocols.
“So it depends on the reach and the guts of the company and their ability and willingness to invest,” Mahadeo stated categorically.
Making reference to his candid position as it relates Guyana’s E-Governance project for which a US$34M Chinese loan has already been inked, Mahadeo disclosed that “I have always expressed that there must be openness.  There must be freedom and I had said, even when I was CEO (at GT&T), that I wanted to lead the competition; there must be competition and that remains my position.”
The E-Governance project is set to revolve around the rollout of a fibre optic network that is currently being tested and stretches from Brazil. A fibre optic cable is being deployed along the coast connecting Georgetown to Moleson Creek in the east and Anna Regina to the west, to Linden and Lethem in the south by utilizing Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) fibre links.
Wireless sites along this corridor will also be constructed to provide the “last mile” connection utilizing 4G technologies Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) also referred to as Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex (LTE TDD). All Government compounds and buildings, police stations, airports, schools and hospitals are expected to be encompassed in order to access the network service.
The second phase of the E-Governance Project focuses on the ‘Data Centre’ to be constructed in Georgetown.
“What I believe has to happen and I haven’t seen happening… or I don’t know is happening, is careful planning, because of the fact that it requires a lot of money because of the speed of technology,” Mahadeo noted.
He however gave credit to Government, who in its quest to establish a data centre (a process which commenced some three years ago) was alert enough to recognise early on that a change of technology was warranted. The Government was initially looking towards the WiMAX technology.
“At any stage of the project path you will have some form of diversion and there may be a need to change the course and go to another technology, and I think we have seen this with Government. Due credit to them, they realised that they had to change, because this was where technology was going.”
“The primary aim, however, is to have a convergence where all technologies will be compatible,” said Mahadeo, as he speculated that Government is ambitious enough to embrace a sustainable approach.
“I would presume that the Government would be thinking a five or seven-year plan for its ICT development, and I would also presume that the Government, if we peruse their national budget, has allocations identified for ICT development in the future,” he noted.
According to Mahadeo, Guyana is well positioned, geographically, to have a wonderful data centre. He added that any such venture here is a good one, since Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the South American continent.
“Our language is the same as North America and we have a lot of positives here that can be exploited… And I mean this in a positive way. So I would like to encourage government and the private sector to just jump on it and let’s do it,” Mahadeo passionately asserted.
As the head of GT&T, Mahadeo was personally involved in reducing cost and increasing internet speed to the populace as part of telephone company’s efforts to give more bandwidth to its customers.

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