When the new year began, telecommunications consortium, Trans Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC) was already 12 days past the deadline they were given two years before by the technology ministry to be ready to offer telecom services.

Under the licence they were granted in December 2004, the consortium was to have laid underwater fibre-optic cable connecting Jamaica to the Dominican Republic and on to the United States, and be ready for service by "no later than" December 20, 2006.

In this January 2005 file photo, Brian Crawford (right), president of Trans Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC), poses with Richard Pardy (left), chief executive of Flow at the press conference announcing the awards of two undersea fibre optic licences. At centre is technology minister Phillip Paulwell.

But difficulties in securing funding for the capital-intensive project, initially estimated at a cost of US$30 million, has forced the TCCC to put off its plan to lay the cable possibly to as far back as 2008.

"The main reason for the delays has been funding commitments by its members," said Brian Crawford, president of TCCC. "The biggest cause was mergers and acquisitions by members of the consortium."
The primary acquisition was that of Mexican telecom giant, Telmex, which last year bought out the Latin American assets of fellow consortium member Verizon, a US-based firm.

"Verizon selling its assets in the region caused delay to funding for three of seven countries were affected by the buyout," added Crawford. The lower number of countries possibly involved in the consortium translates into a higher cost per member.
"There are derived cost savings, from a shared network connection to the US, that is, its is cheaper to build a network shared by several entities than for one built to accommodate one country."

But Crawford believes that in a few weeks his firm will come to an agreement that will finance the plan to be implemented, although the options available places the possible landing time for an underwater fibre-optic cable in Jamaica at late 2007 to early 2008.
In the meantime, the firm has applied for an extension, on which TCCC plans to provide utility regulator, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), with clarifications by April.

Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell told Sunday Finance that he was reviewing the licence in another two weeks, having already granted conditional extension to the consortium on news that the principal of one of its member companies, Dean Panton of Jamaica Network Access Point (JNAP) had passed away.

"I agreed to an extension given that one of the players had recently died," said Paulwell. He indicated, however, that he would favour the second fibre-optic cable coming to the island due to the increased competition and bandwidth capabilities it would bring to Jamaica.

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