A technician monitors the NOC at the operation's headquaters.

It took nearly a year for Mark Reid to close the deal to acquire the remaining shares in Jamaica Network Access Point (JNAP) that gives him full control of the beleaguered telecommunications firm.

But the agreement, which was signed last Friday, gave Reid the weight he needed to merge his newly acquired entity with Convergent Technologies and the manoeuvrability to move on investing in the third underwater fibre optic cable entity in Jamaica that will create a Caribbean hub for data, voice and video.

Convergent, as does JNAP, currently operates in Jamaica as a collocation point where companies can locate their servers and store critical back office data. Convergent also provides services as a backbone carrier, broadband data, Internet and telephony services.

After JNAP's founder and majority shareholder, Dean Panton, passed away last December, it took most of 2007 to complete the sale of the company. But the operations of the firm fell off during the time it took to close the deal.

Mark Reid

The operations are now being managed by Convergent, the firm that it will be merged with and which is currently run by Reid.

The deal will give Reid a stake in the combined operations which will own, through JNAP, 49 per cent of Trans Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC), one of the two entities to be awarded a license in 2005 to land fibre cable in Jamaica.

The other was Columbus Communications, which operates in Jamaica as Flow and which has a Caribbean presence largely through its holdings of subscriber television companies in the Bahamas and in Trinidad and Tobago.

Brian Crawford, president of Trans Caribbean Cable Network (TCCN), which owns the remaining 51 per cent of the fibre cable company, is also on the same page as Reid. Together they have attracted an investor willing to put up the necessary capital required for laying the underwater cable, although Reid was unwilling to divulge details on the pending investment deal.

"We are in advanced discussions in bringing the third fibre optic cable company to Jamaica," Reid told the Business Observer.

The cable will connect Jamaica directly with the US and also join with existing fibre ring in the Caribbean, "likely in the DR (Dominican Republic)", according to Reid.

"This will provide a data hub for the Caribbean, where firms such as insurance companies and banks can locate their servers."

The move is not intended to attract only firms seeking to secure offsite locations for critical servers to their back office operations, but to attract further investments in the call centre industry.

"It enhances investment in telecommunications and call centres in Jamaica, which will become more competitive with countries like India, which is known as the call centre capital of the world."

Jamaica Trade and Invest estimates the number of persons employed to the sub- sector, which took off at the beginning of the decade when the telecommunications sector was liberalised, at 14,000 and earns revenue of between US$350 million and US$400 million.

Phone calls become cheaper because additional fibre running between countries regionally provide more cost- effective connectivity.

Reid himself has set up call centre operations in Jamaica during the year and currently employs 20 representatives working for four firms. The venture was initially viewed as a pet project, but the success he has had prodded him to upgrade his facilities to accommodate 80 more representatives.

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