Grenada and its dependencies will soon boast of significant improvements in the quality of broadband access which will be facilitated under the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program CARCIP.
The World Bank funded project is being executed by Digicel on behalf of the Governments of Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This phase of the project which includes the installation of marine fibre optic cable is being done by the Canadian based Company, International Telecoms.
The project will increase access to regional broadband network by bringing true broadband connectivity to schools, community centers and Government offices.
It will also advance development of an ICT enabled services industry in the three beneficiary countries.
Hon. Gregory Bowen, Minister for Infrastructure Development, Public Utilities, Energy, Transport & Implementation describes this as a major milestone for Grenada that paves the way for the inclusion of advanced technology in the future development of the country.
“Our children, being able to work online, our examinations being done online, no buffering, lecturing; I’ve always advocated that the best mathematics Teacher, should teach Mathematics to the entire people in Grenada and perhaps the region.
We can do this now with broadband; so we sit in one school and the teacher lectures to everyone, because of the technology.
The opportunities are great, jobs from one location, working for persons in other locations, other countries this can manifest itself from what we have now, our broadband system.
Carriacou, we are especially pleased with Carriacou because, with all the developments they have never had the opportunity for real broadband, always a radio link”.
Project Offshore Installation Manager for International Telecoms Todd Nicholls said the installation process will commence on Thursday.
He said the cables will be laid on the seabed from Conference Bay, St. Andrew to the east of Kick ‘em Jenny, going on to Hillsborough, Carriacou.
“We anticipate getting underway tomorrow from here over to Conference late tomorrow and spending all day Friday on site doing some trials and prepping the beach.
From there we hope to get underway Saturday morning, which will put us into Carriacou on Sunday. We will see how time goes, but the Carriacou segment that’s 53 kilometers in length, that is the longest segment of this particular project, but we anticipate being able to have that completed by Sunday. We’re very excited about participating with everybody here”.
Shrivon Redhead CEO of DIGICEL Grenada Limited, said she is pleased that Digicel and Government can collaborate to enhance the technology of the future.
“Being introduced via fibre subsea which you guys are here responsible for laying, which will be connected to our terrestrial fibre underground will not only provide tremendous capacity, for our off island capacity and network resilience.
Now this technology will provide the bandwidth for tomorrow’s technology, it will not only change the way we evolve in terms of how we communicate, it will change the way we’re able to deliver education in schools and will also change the way we run our businesses and that is something we have to acknowledge across Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, Grenadines and by extension St. Lucia and St. Vincent through this CARCIP Project”
Following the Press Conference Government and Digicel Officials were given a tour of the Telecoms Cable ship, to get an understanding of the installation process.
International Telecoms officials say installation of cables process will be ecofriendly, minimizing harm to the ecosystem.
The entire process of installation and testing will take approximately 5 weeks.
