Jamaica License Awarded to TCCN Consortium
Bedminster, New Jersey, January 5, 2005 – Press Release
Trans-Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC) is pleased to confirm that
its license proposal submitted on November 1, 2004 resulted in the
issuance of a license by the Jamaican government on December 20,
2004. Today in Kingston, Mr. Crawford, the President of TCCC, made
the following remarks at a press conference hosted by the Jamaican
government: “On behalf of AT&T Wireless (now Cingular),
Digicel, Gotel, MCI, Oceanic Digital, Reliant, Sprint, Verizon,
and the other 30-plus members of the TCCN consortium, I would like
to thank Minister Paulwell and the OUR for awarding the license
to us.
Using the newly issued license, the Trans-Caribbean Cable Network
(TCCN) cable owner’s consortium will be able to move forward
with its plans to construct a new undersea fiber optic cable to
Jamaica. We believe that the new cable will greatly improve the
quality of Jamaica’s telecommunications infrastructure, resulting
in more reliable services at lower costs for all Jamaican consumers.
The TCCN Jamaica project is based upon an open investment model
that we call the Virtual Consortium™ Model (VCM). Unlike private
or ‘club’ cables, this model encourages the participation
of all interested players and insures nondiscriminatory access to
the network with our involvement as a carrier-neutral management
entity. Ultimately, the network itself will be owned by the consortium
of users and not by one private entity, in a similar way that multiple
homeowners own their homes in a large real estate development. This
open consortium model provides each participant with the ability
to use, lease, or resell its portion of the network according to
its own desires.
Here in Jamaica, nondiscriminatory access will be provided in partnership
with JNAP. The project will include a terrestrial fiber network
connection to the JNAP collocation facility in New Kingston and
will thereby guarantee the ability for any Jamaican service provider
to satisfy their bandwidth, collocation, and access needs without
any interference from their competitors. In closing, I would like
to applaud the Minister and the OUR for their professional, efficient,
and timely management of a very complex evaluation process which
led to this license award.
Having personally worked on several different fiber projects in
many different countries, I would like to note that it has been
a very positive experience working with the Jamaican government
and I look forward to continuing this relationship as we work together
to bring this new fiber to Jamaica. Thank you.”
TCCC is the management organization responsible for the creation
of TCCN. The management team of TCCC has more than 100 years of
combined experience in submarine cable planning, construction, operations
and maintenance.
For more information, please visit www.trans-caribbeancable.com.
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