THE LIBERALISATION of the telecommunications sector took another major step forward last week when two consortiums were granted licences to connect Jamaica to the United States and to the rest of the world by fibre optic cables. This effectively ends the Cable and Wireless monopoly on fibre optic transmission. Consumers are already benefiting significantly from lower prices for overseas telephone calls with competition in the sector.
The promise from the new providers of fibre optic transmission is that the speed of data transfer will go up and prices will come down. The introduction of a similar under-sea fibre optic cable in The Bahamas led to the lowering of Internet costs by 75 per cent in the first year.
Under the terms of the licences, Fibralink Jamaica Limited and Trans-Caribbean Cable Company Limited, are to invest some $5 billion in laying cables between Jamaica and Florida, with Fibralink connecting via The Bahamas and TCC going through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The companies, we are told, were selected from three bidders through a rigorous process of assessment by the Office of Utilities Regulation with the assistance of external consultants. Services are expected to come on stream as early as October this year.
The advantages of fibre optic cables have led to them replacing copper wire as the medium of data transmission in telecommunication systems since the 1970s when the technology became commercially practical. Fibre optic cables have many advantages over copper cables. They operate at higher speed with a larger carrying capacity or bandwidth. Signals can be transmitted further without needing to boost signal strength. The system is free from interference from external sources and is considerably cheaper to maintain.
These advantages deliver what Minister Phillip Paulwell and the selected companies are promising: higher capacities for voice and data transmission and considerably lower costs. We are happy to note the involvement of local players in the telecommunications sector as partners in both consortiums which have been awarded the licences.
Clearly these developments should redound to the benefit of commercial and domestic customers. In an era of fast changing developments in communications technology, Jamaica needs to be on the cutting edge of the sector so that our people can be enabled to operate as efficiently as possible.
Reflecting the wide usefulness of the improved system of telecommunication, there was a wide cross-section of guests representing the private sector, the legal and medical fraternities, Internet service providers and the postal service, present at the press conference announcing the granting of the fibre optic cable licences.
Such a wide band of interest reflects an updated scope of awareness of the importance of new technology. This is an important aspect of keeping pace with the global marketplace.
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