The firm, which was acquired by Lee Chin's Columbus Communications in September 2005, owns 94 per cent of the Americas Region Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS), the fibre ring that was critical in connecting Jamaica to the US and enabling Flow - the name under which Columbus operates in Jamaica - to provide broadband and cable television services.

Columbus Networks' Colombia-Florida Sub Sea Fibre Project, dubbed CFX-1, includes more than 2,400 kilometres of high-strength, high-capacity fibre-optic cable and will have a branch in Jamaica.

The express link will have three new landing stations in Cartagena, Colombia; Morant Point; Jamaica; and Boca Raton, Florida, USA.

Columbus marketing Director, Jorge Fernandez told Caribbean Business Report in a telephone interview on Tuesday, that the firm requested permission from Jamaican regulators to land the cable here, but work has already begun in Colombia.

"We expect to be up and running by the second quarter of 2008," said Fernandez.

The route will offer users improved network redundancy, reliability, performance, and bandwidth availability throughout the Pan-Caribbean and Americas Region.  But importantly to Jamaica, it will translate into faster turnaround time for upgrades.

"It will allow us to do upgrades where required," said Fernandez.  "A direct benefit to Jamaica is that as the market grows we will be able to make upgrades in short periods of time."

The multimillion US dollar CFX-1 is the largest network expansion project since Lee Chin acquired the firm, nearly two years ago, according to president of Columbus Networks Paul Scott in a press release earlier this week.

"This project demonstrates Columbus' ongoing commitment to invest in the region and help stimulate new economic growth and expansion," Scott said in the statement.  Columbus Networks awarded the contract for building the network to Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics.

"This new system will not only greatly improve the reliability of ARCOS, but also provide further network redundancy for Jamaica and add huge capacity capability for the entire region," added William Marra, vice-president and general manager of Tyco Telecommunications.

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