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Submarine cable connection will help lower internet costs
posted on: Dec 6 2010 10:2 by The Reporter. Viewed 922 times.
A new "East-West" submarine cable will allow the Dominican Republic to increase the capacity and speed of its Internet access, which should result in reduced service costs.
It is expected that this cable which interconnects the Dominican Republic with the British Virgin Islands and Jamaica will become operational in late January 2011. The project is being undertaken by American company Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC), with an investment of around US$ 35 million.
The connection plan, held last Saturday, was the installation of cable in Tortola (one of the British Virgin Islands, east of Puerto Rico), Santo Domingo and then finally in Jamaica.
The ship Rene Descartes owned by France Telecom, sailed from Playa de Manresa, where the first connection was made. After keying in an entry known as "registro" ("man-hole", in English) provided by Wind Telecom, the ship sailed to Jamaica, where technicians will complete the final phase of assembly in 15 days.
The initiative is an important step forward in the local telecommunications industry, said the director of the Presidential Office of Information Technology and Communication (Optic), Domingo Tavarez, and Martin Fijman, chief executive of the company making the investment.
He further explained that this means increased competition for local businesses, best deals for consumers and lower costs for telecommunications companies. Fijman said that after the installation, Cable and Wireless Communications will have a team of engineers responsible for its operation, and a group of vendors who will be responsible for marketing the internet services to local businesses.
"We have another cable running from Tortola to New York and when interfaced with our network, the cable will reach the East-West United States taking advantage of the connectivity directly from the U.S. to Santo Domingo ", explained Fijman.
CWC Company executive, Katherine Hernandez, stressed the importance of this connection because, she said, the country has only two undersea cables that are now more than 15 years old, which results in a technology gap .
The new mustard colored cable has a length of 1600 kilometers, and an approximate diameter of 20 cm.
Martin Fijman explained that this cable is made with the latest optical fiber technology, allowing it to continue operating despite the adverse conditions existing on the ocean floor.
He said that the use of fiber optics allows the transmission of large amounts of data at much lower costs than satellite communications, making it more competitive and secure from the interruptions, which are very common in satellite transmissions.
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