PREPARATIONS IN CUBA TO CONNECT UNDERWATER CABLE ENTER FINAL STAGE

According to ACN: Workers on the infrastructure created ineastern Santiago de Cuba to connect the Venezuela-Cuba underwatercable have intensified their efforts as the date set for thestarting of the laying of the cable approaches. In the beach town ofSiboney, 14 Km east of the city, the group of technicians working onthe infrastructure that includes a communications center needed forthe successful development of the project have entered the finalstage of the preparation process. The laying of the cable isscheduled to begin between January 18 and 20. It will be laid fromCamuri, a site close to the town of La Guaira in the northern coastof Venezuela to Santiago de Cuba, where it should be within thefirst half of February. Works on the beach registries, where theunderwater cable will be connected with the land cable, are on thefinal stage; 70 % of equipment and accessories included in theinvestment for the project on the Cuban side have been alreadydelivered, while the technical staff that will operate the system isreceiving training to start working on July 2011. The assembly ofequipment at a maintenance center in Santiago de Cuba city is alsoabout to be completed. Engineers and technicians who will work atthe center are Cubans who studied in the island and receivedpostgraduate training in France specifically to work on the project.After reaching Santiago de Cuba, a bifurcation of the 630-Km longcable will be extended through Ocho Rios, Jamaica, to connect thatcountry and other nations in the area. According to previousreports, the cost of the project amounts to $70 million. It willgive the island the possibility to access the fiber optic connectionsystem for the first time. Once operations begin, data, image andvoice transmission will be 3,000 times faster and the country willhave a capacity for 10 million simultaneous telephone transmissions.Using the two-pair fiber optic cable does not mean that Cuba willstop being tied to satellite internet service as it is the onlymeans to access the web because of the U.S. blockade against thecountry; however, operation costs will drop by 25 %.