Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon says that the US$32 million E-Governance project which includes the laying of a fibre optic cable from Brazil is on-going and will be completed sometime in 2014.
“Our intention was always 2012. That was unfortunately not met…2013 and we have now moved to 2014,” said Luncheon at his post-Cabinet press briefing held yesterday. The fibre optic project was one of the ‘must have’ projects former President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo hyped during the months in the run up to the 2011 general elections. Dr. Luncheon’s update breaks months of silence from Government on the status of the project. Stabroek News had recently approached E-Governance Project Manager Alexei Ramotar for a comment on the status of the project. He however said that he had nothing to say to Stabroek News.
“It is on-going,” Dr. Luncheon said of the project. “There is no question of it being way beyond the deadline. Both components…the Moleson Creek to Charity as well as the Lethem to Georgetown,” he said.
Luncheon said that much more progress has been made with the Moleson Creek to Charity aspect as evidenced by the erection of towers in the important locations in the coastal regions.
“The work on the Lethem to Linden (part) has indeed picked up as some of the shortcomings of the earlier period are being addressed,” he said.
The HPS said that the length of the reels of cable being laid were too long at 10 kilometres, allowing for easier damage. “The lengths of the reels were maybe too long to ensure the integrity at minimal risk,” he said.
He said that four kilometre lengths will be used specifically in those areas where the 10 km lengths were exposed to damage and breakage. “In those other areas in which there is some sustained basis for thinking that a shorter length will be easier to secure and maintain its integrity we switching over to a four km length,” he said.
Experts in the industry believe that private sector enterprises like E-Networks could possibly benefit from government’s E-Governance project, of which the fibre-optic cable out of Brazil is a part, to the detriment of its competitors.
It is believed that the technology that the cable brings to the IT landscape could see it powering services such as enhanced internet, cable television and voice.
During a press conference last May, Ramotar refused to comment on whether the fibre-optic cable would be used to help commercial entities, such as triple-play providers of broadband internet, cable television and telephone.
At a press conference in May last year, Government had said it had not decided whether private businesses will be able to tap into the huge excess of bandwidth from the fibre-optic cable, though it is clear that cable companies could benefit from this resource.
Speculation was rife that among its uses, the cable could go towards boosting the capacity of services offered by cable companies, such as those operated by Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud, seen by industry actors as favoured by the administration in the allocation of cable frequencies.
Documents presented by Prime Minister Sam Hinds in Parliament last year revealed that no other cable operator has the capacity on par with what has been allocated to Yong and Persaud—2.5 GHz band frequencies, prompting concerns over the fairness of the distribution of the frequencies to them.
Asked at the May press conference whether the project will see private individuals being able to purchase bandwidth, Ramotar said that government has no plans to go in this direction.
He however acknowledged that there would be excess bandwidth flowing from the fibre-optic cable.
