Prime Minister Bruce Golding has signed off on the licence to Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe (TGC), a state-run Venezuelan/Cuban consortium, for a US$70 million fibre optic cable to carry tele-communications traffic between Caracas, Havana, Kingston and the rest of the world.
Jamaica immediately began searching for new investors for other submarine cable con-struction, saying more linkages with the world would bring down the cost of broadband, creating comparative advantage for the country.
The three telecoms that have been angling for a partnership deal with TGC to build the Jamaica-Cuba link are still awaiting a decision on whose proposal is most irresistible to the Latin American outfit.
LIME Jamaica on Wednesday confirmed it was still in talks with TGC, while Columbus Communi-cations Jamaica and Digicel Group promised later comment on the status of similar negotiations.
Golding signed the licence to TGC on November 17 and the company collected the paperwork from the Office of Utilities Regulation three days later, said OUR Director of Consumer and Public Affairs Michael Bryce.
TGC was the sole bidder for the submarine cable to be laid between Jamaica and Cuba, with a spur to Haiti, which lies just west of the two countries.
The next step
"The OUR recommended the issuance of the licence to Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe SA and the recommendation was accepted," said Bryce.
The next step is for the licensee to build out its infrastructure, he added.
Gran Caribe, which is owned 60 per cent by the state-owned Telecom Venezuela and 40 per cent by Cuba's Telco Transbit, also plans to run nearly 1,000 miles of cable from Maiquetia, in northern Venezuela, to Siboney, in Cuba's eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
The Cuba/Venezuela leg is expected to link to Trinidad and Tobago and the Dutch territory of Curaçao.
Alongside the big three telecoms, a group of Jamaican investors led by Florida-based investment banker Jason Abrahams, was also looking to work out a deal with TGC.
Abrahams created a vehicle called DCFN, which formed an alliance with Jamaica Network Access Point (JNAP), but a source close to DCFN said this week that the group has all but written off its chances, because no one has communicated with them.
Meantime, OUR this week placed new advertisements for investors in two more submarine fibre optic cables but has not specified a destination for the links.
The regulator said the government is keen to promote a policy of liberalising access to international gateways and securing increased bandwidth capacity to reduce the costs of providing IT services, and is pros-pecting for investors toward that goal.
"Securing additional inter-national submarine fibre capacity to encourage the landing of multiple submarine cables and to provide route diversity and efficient restoration capacity is a linchpin of this objective," Bryce said.
"The construction, ownership and operation of such facilities, however, require specific licences."
Applicants must demonstrate that they have the requisite financial and technical capability to construct, own and/or operate the facilities and that they are likely to be granted the requisite landing permit in proposed destination territories.
mark.titus@gleanerjm.com