The technology minister, Phillip Paulwell, told reporters at Monday's post-Cabinet press briefing that more submarine fibre-optic cables were needed to allow for increased telecoms competition in that area.

He said that although it was one of the "final limbs" of the telecoms infrastructure, it was one area where Jamaica has not had much success, noting that it was Cable and Wireless Jamaica that owned the existing cables and so other companies who needed the use of the facilities had to be routed through them.

The government, the minister said, was now seeking to open up this segment of the market, but admitted that the cost would be at least US$40 million.

He told reporters that following the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and the increased usage of telecommunications services, the country now needs to upgrade or expand its submarine fibre-optic cable "bottleneck" to deliver competitive and cost-effective services.

According to Paulwell, the universal service goals of providing Internet access to all schools and public institutions could not be achieved unless such facilities were brought on stream swiftly and at reasonable prices.

Paulwell said, too, that the country would not be able to attract new offshore call centres and/or data intensive operations to the Free Trade Zones at competitive rates without the facilities.

But he pointed out that notwithstanding the clear and pressing need for the provision of additional fibre capacity to and from Jamaica, none of the applicants for international carrier licences included this component in their applications and, accordingly, there were no such facilities under construction or in operation.

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