Richard Pardy, (left) chief executive of FibraLink Jamaica Limited and Brian Crawford, president of Trans Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC) at the press conference announcing the awards of two undersea fibre optic licences earlier this year. At centre is technology minister Phillip Paulwell.

FibraLink Jamaica Limited, one of the two companies issued 20-year licence to lay and operate underwater fibre-optic cable between Jamaica and the United States, has sought and secured a four-month extension from the government for the completion of the project.

The licences were issued earlier this year through competitive tender with specific conditionalities, including strict deadlines on the project.

The company said yesterday that it would be ready to provide service by the beginning of 2006.

The contract between the government and FibraLink, mandated that the firm begin commercial operation within no more than 10 months of the issuing of the licence. Service should have therefore begun by October 30, 2005. Additionally, the full system was to be in place by the end of December.

But yesterday FibraLink CEO Richard Pardy argued that the target was unrealistic but was pursued because of the immediate need for additional bandwidth in Jamaica. He blamed the failure to meet the deadline on delays by governmental agencies, as well as, world market conditions.

"The process of building a submarine fibre-optic system is actually a 24 month process, and we are trying to do it in 12 because Jamaica really needs the additional cable for multi-capacity purposes and redundancies," Pardy told the Business Observer. "In doing it in 12, there are a lot of dynamics and variables you have to manage at the same time, and while we have had huge successes, we have also had huge challenges."

One such challenge, Pardy pointed said, was world steel shortages, "where [they] have to pre-buy the steel for the cable in a very tough market".

The submarine fibre cable is largely made of steel, which makes up the majority of the weight and diameter of the cable. This provide a protective shield for the fibres.

"The biggest challenge we have had in Jamaica, is obtaining all the requisite approvals from the various government agencies," said Pardy. "We still do not have NWA (National Works Agency) approval; NEPA (National Environmental Protection Agency) approval, or even permission to build a small building in Montego Bay, because the process has taken an inordinate amount of time."

The building in MoBay, to be located in Reading on land leased from Chas E Ramson, is to be one of five points of presence, including co-location leases at Merit Communications and Jamaica Network Access Point, as well as, sites owned by Couples Resort in St Ann and AT&T in Bull Bay.

It is unclear why the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology would have approved the proposed development plans without determining whether other relevant agencies would object, but the regulators concurred with FibraLink's position after hearing its case for rescheduling. They allowed the ready-for-service date to be pushed back to February 28, 2006.

Having already spent over US$30 million ($1.9 billion) of the US$45 million ($2.8 billion) that was budgeted, and with major hurdles already overcome, Pardy is optimistic about delivering the cable by the end of the year.

"The cable is 90 per cent manufactured," Pardy told the Business Observer. "The electronics are in our warehouse right now, being tested, consolidated and shipped to the various sites where we have landings - the one for Kingston should arrive in 10 days."

He expects the manufactured cable to start loading in three weeks and the ship to be in Jamaican waters by November 10.

As part of the amendment, the company also changed the routes that the cable would take. The original route was from Jamaica to Inagua, Bahamas and then on to the US through its network in Bahamas.

Now, the cable will be run from Jamaica to the north coast of the Dominica Republic, then to Turks and Caicos, and on to The Bahamas. This change, according to Pardy, coincided with the company's parent, a Barbados corporation named Columbus Communication, acquiring an existing regional fibre-optic network during the period.

"The main reason for it changing is that our organisation has acquired the assets of the company known as New World Networks, which owns the Americas Region Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS), so it made a lot of sense to integrate our Jamaican network into the ARCOS network."
The amended licence also covers a run of cable from Jamaica to Cuba to Freeport, Grand Bahamas.

"In this network design, we have been trying to position Jamaica as a hub for cables in the Caribbean, and to do that we need to get cables to as many adjoining countries as possible," he said. "Cuba is our closest neighbour."

The government announced on January 5, 2005 that it granted two licences for the construction and operation of two submarine fibre-optic cable networks linking Jamaica to North America and the rest of the world.

The total investment of over $5 billion, to be made by FibraLink and Trans Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC) Limited, will open the opportunity for competition in the routing of data and voice traffic.

TCCC is required to complete its construction by December 2006, but is disallowed from operating before then.

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