Mr. Paulwell, in making his contribution to a parliamentary debate on a private member's motion from Opposition spokesman on technology, Clive Mullings, said the first fibre link, licences for which were granted last year, "will land in Jamaica next week".

NEW DAWN

"That will represent a new dawn for Jamaica in relation to this infrastructure," Mr. Paulwell told the House of Representatives yesterday.  "We are going to have a capacity of 80 gigabytes per second.  It is going to be superior to every country apart from Brazil in this hemisphere."

The minister claimed the technological boost and massive new capacity would allow Jamaica to become "the telecommuting hub of the region".

The two licences granted last year were for the construction and operation of two submarine fibre-optic networks that will link Jamaica to North America and the rest of the world.

The licensees, Fibralink Jamaica Limited and Trans-Caribbean Cable Company Limited (TCCCL), were expected to make a total investment of $5 billion in the creation of the undersea links, a process that was scheduled for completion by year-end.

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