Vincentians may see cheaper internet rates

Thursday 17 May was World Telecommunications Day and Vincentians may soon have something to celebrate in the form of cheaper Internet rates. {{more}}

Telecom Minister Dr Jerrol Thompson told SEARCHLIGHT that he hopes Southern Fibre, which landed here at Great Head Bay, Arnos Vale earlier this year, becomes operational by carnival. “This would open competition and make the services cheaper to benefit subscribers,” he said.

Southern Fibre was born out of a grant of 30 million Euro dollars by France to one of its Caribbean Territories Guadeloupe. The fibre stretches from Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe and Martinique, however it required an extension to reach other territories. The French territories along with the World Bank, the European Union and other Caribbean countries through their Telecoms Ministers encouraged a third extension, financed by private sector funding, further south to Suriname and French Guyana.

Cable and Wireless owns the first marine fibre system that connects the Caribbean to the rest of the world, however a fibre system called Flo landed in Jamaica last year.

Dr Thompson left the State last week for Geneva where he made a presentation on Wednesday to European Ministers and Ambassadors on “Lessons learnt, Failures and Successes of Information Communication Technology (ICT), in the developing world. Thompson said that he planned to take a Caribbean approach and highlight the importance of capacity building and the timely allocation of financial resources by donor agencies. (AC)