Cable & Wireless eager for return to Guyana -working on submarine cable with local partner
Photo: Minister Cathy Hughes with Dennis Waters of C& W.
On March 23, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications disclosed it has hosted a meeting with Cable and Wireless, the former UK-owned telephone company, which was officially acquired by Liberty Global on May 16, 2016.
Despite several delays in the current negotiation process between Government and US-owned Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), interest in the country’s telecommunications sector is high.
Visiting Guyana for the meeting was Dennis Waters, Vice President of Sub Sea Systems, Cable and Wireless Networks.
He was hosted by Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, on Thursday, March 22.
“He took the opportunity to present his company’s plans for potential investment in Guyana’s Telecommunications Sector. The Sub Sea cable expert expressed C&W’s interest and confidence in Guyana and the immense potential that the country currently has for creating a vibrant, competitive telecommunications industry,” the Minister said.
It was disclosed that C&W is currently laying the groundwork for ‘serious investments’ including a new local submarine network. The company said it has already engaged a local partner.
“Cable and Wireless has been a steady supplier of telecommunications services across the Caribbean since before the 1980’s. Today, the company operates under a number of brands, including LIME, Columbus’ FLOW and CWC Business, and it holds a minority stake in TSTT in Trinidad.”
According to Waters, his company is pleased that the Guyana Government is moving ahead with the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.
C&W is describing itself as a wholesale telecommunications service provider that offers broadband and IP capacity services to telecommunications carriers, TV cable companies, Internet Service Providers and Network Integrators.
“C&W Networks operates this network throughout the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean regions, with more than 50,000 kilometers of subsea fiber, over 60 sub-sea cable stations and 38,000 kilometers of terrestrial fiber.”
C&W Networks also says it serves more than 250 local and international carriers.
“We have multiple Network Operation Centers to provide a single-point, end to end, 24/7/365, multilingual, direct contact communication in order to ensure a more efficient service to our customers.”
Guyana currently has two telephone companies- Digicel and GTT.
However, GTT, owned by a US company, is the one with a monopoly on paper for landline and international calls.
Government has passed liberalisations allowing for other competitors to enter the market but it has stuck with GTT in negotiations for several months now.
The slow growth of telecoms has been blamed for retarding Guyana’s development.
GTT has been under pressure recently for not rolling out services as quickly including landlines and for problems with its DSL.
