This diagram shows the multiple paths now available to Guyana to pass communication traffic with the rest of the world through Trinidad and Tobago.
Tomado de:
Exploiting the vast potential of the ICT age
Posted By Stabroek staff On June 18, 2010 @ 5:11 am In Business
A look at the positive changes which the new Guyana/Suriname fibre optic telecommunications cable system can bring to Guyana
Suriname and Guyana, two of the few remaining countries in the hemisphere with limited international telecommunications access to the rest of the world stand on the threshold of entry into a brave new world of ultra-modern communication with the advent of the new Suriname/Guyana Submarine Cable System (SCSGS).
Up until now, both countries have been confined to inefficient, vulnerable and often unreliable land cables routed through neighbouring French Guiana, rendering their international access to both voice and internet communications heavily reliant on costly satellite capacity.
Eighteen months of elaborate planning and negotiations have finally led to the provision of a submarine cable network linking Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and the outcome, fibre optic access for both Guyana and Suriname to Port of Spain now provides both countries with onward submarine networks that will provide a significant improvement in the telecommunications capabilities of the two South American republics. Executed by the Guyana Telephone and Tele-graph Company (GT&T) in collaboration with the state-run telecommunications service provider TELESUR of Suriname and Glo-bal Marine Systems Limited, a UK-based fibre optic cable systems provider, the SGSCS is set to serve the telecommunications needs of Guyana and Suriname for the next 25 years. The US$65 million investment, endorsed by both governments in December 2008, positions the two countries to infuse a significantly enhanced ICT component into their development planning.
Here in Guyana, GT&T, the local telecommunications service provider says that it has developed “an extensive plan of growth and acquisition” that extends the role of the new submarine cable beyond simply improving the country’s international access. The company asserts that the new cable will open the door to a range of telecommunications services that could otherwise impact significantly on jobs, the economy, enterprise, education, health care, governance, and, by extension on the overall development of Guyana.
Cheaper, enhanced capacity for data and information transfer and speed of transfer – which is what the new submarine cable provides – opens up an exciting range of new ICT possibilities for Guyana. Among those to which GT&T has already pointed are significant enhancements in the capacity of local small and medium enterprises to develop new commercial opportunities and to serve as a catalyst for change in the way in which businesses in Guyana are organized and operate. By embracing the increased broadband communications capacity which the new cable provides local small and medium enterprises will create opportunities to improve both their productivity and their competitiveness.
Larger companies could benefit even more significantly since increased bandwidth access will deliver significant supply chain efficiencies while offering new, more reliable ways of interfacing with markets including online retailing and the exploitation of home-working which will markedly reduce the requirement for office space and other requisites associated with the marketing of goods and services.
One particularly exciting prospect that emerges from the installation of the new submarine cable reposes in its potential to bring Guyana millions of dollars in foreign earnings from the provision of ICT-related services to foreign markets. Analysts of the economic and technological significance of the cable cite the availability of a large number of English-speaking, computer-trained young Guyanese on the one hand and the low wages, on the other, as assets that position Guyana to compete with some of the larger communication offshore centres including India. The prospects for a significantly enhanced level of ICT-related services reposes in several sectors including call centres, medical transcription, data entry, back office processing, engineering design, translation and animation among others. With the July 1 commissioning of the submarine cable system the provision of these and other services will become both much easier and much more affordable.
The mainstream Guyana economy including its agricultural sector will also be contemplating the potential improvements in management, production and marketing techniques which the new cable promises. Local farmers will benefit from a sustained flow of reliable information on such issues as fertilizer use, choice of crops and timing of sowing and harvesting. Market planning can benefit from quick and reliable information on demand and prices which will help determine their supply strategies. Electronic commerce or e-commerce, a service which the new cable now places in the hands of suppliers covers various forms of trade all of which rely on the internet to market, identify, select, pay for and deliver goods and services.
The prospects for electronic governance (e-governance) in the delivery of public value also loom large. From a public sector perspective the new cable opens up the prospect of a significantly improved regime of two-way flow of information between the state and the citizenry including, critically, the facilitation of ongoing discourse between the government and the populace both through the internet and through websites. Here, a persuasive argument can be made for the important role of ICT in enhancing the democratic process by providing citizens with a greater talk back capacity as well as easier access to the decision-making machinery.
At another level both government and the private sector will benefit from enhanced access to the use of the internet in what is often a tedious, paper-driven tender and bidding process for state contracts. Greater website access will allow for wider publication of projects of public interest including the process of assessing bids and awarding contracts, helping to remove concerns about the transparency of the bidding process. The same, of course, applies to the advertisement of consultancies and permanent positions in the state sector.
The new submarine cable is also likely to trigger more aggressive exploitation of ICT in general and broadband in particular by the education sector. It is no secret that the advent of the internet has already resulted in an infinitely enhanced increase in the flow of information across borders, opening up new opportunities for knowledge acquisition through research and enhanced electronic access to books and journals. Distance education and virtual teachers which are already a part of the local education landscape can be significantly boosted by tapping into the enhanced ICT services which the new cable provides.
The gradual expansion and consolidation of ICT services arising out of the firing of the new submarine cable will also create a place for telemedicine (e-health) in Guyana. In the future patients in remote hinterland areas will be technologically equipped to consult with medical practitioners on the coast. Using the facility of telemedicine, doctors and other caregivers will be better positioned to consult with specialists thousands of miles away in real time, providing diagnosis and treatment and, in the process, continually upgrading their own skills. In Guyana’s particular circumstances e-health can contribute significantly to the provision of improved health care among rural and hinterland populations and can also be infused into the network of healthcare services available locally, regionally and internationally.
At the educational and general developmental levels the enhanced ICT capacity which the new cable brings will significantly improve videoconferencing capacity and, in the process, accelerate decision-making, reduce the travel and accommodation costs associated with conventional meetings and conferences and, generally, significantly reduce governance costs. Project monitoring over long distances will also be made significantly easier.
At the social level the increased broadband access which the cable provides will bring fundamental changes to the quality of lives in various simpler but no less significant ways. In homes, children growing up with broadband access are more likely to treat education as a lifelong process and, in the process, will more easily acquire the familiarity with ICT technology which employers will require. Social relationships at the levels of home and community are also likely to be enhanced both by shorter working hours and by the greater facility for working at home. Considerations of reduced stress, more time for family, reduced traffic congestion, choice of physical location and leisure time are all considerations that loom large in a promised enhanced ICT age.
Enhanced broadband access will also create mechanisms that enable the improved delivery of health care for the elderly, providing the elderly and infirm with the facilities – including telemonitoring of health conditions, booking care appointments and grocery delivery services that enable them to live at home rather than remain in hospital or a care home facility.
The case for transformation resulting from access of broadband-enabled ICT can also be extended to the creation of innovative public and private sector programmes aimed at providing enhanced educational opportunities and delivery of public services to the excluded and the marginalized in the society.
GT&T says the equipment and technology utilized in the new submarine cable leads the industry in terms of capability and service guarantee and is “the most efficient in the market” as far as size and power requirements are concerned. The system, it says, “will deliver fully protected capacity to Guyana that equates to over 250,000 simultaneous high quality international telephone conversations or the equivalent of over 4,000 combined DSL connections to the USA.” It is a significant technological leap which challenges Guyana to seize what appears to be a significant juncture on the road to real, multi-faceted development.
Nota del editor del blog: Al referenciarse a la República Cooperativa de Guyana se deben de tener en cuenta los 159.500Km2, de territorios ubicados al oeste del río Esequibo conocidos con el nombre de Guayana Esequiba o Zona en Reclamación sujetos al Acuerdo de Ginebra del 17 de febrero de 1966.
Territorios estos sobre los cuales el gobierno Venezolano en representación de la Nación venezolana se reservo sus derechos sobre los territorios de la Guayana Esequiba en su nota del 26 de mayo de 1966 al reconocerse al nuevo Estado de Guyana .
“...por lo tanto, Venezuela reconoce como territorio del nuevo Estado, el que se sitúa al este de la margen derecha del río Esequibo y reitera ante la comunidad internacional, que se reserva expresamente sus derechos de soberanía territorial sobre la zona que se encuentra en la margen izquierda del precitado río; en consecuencia, el territorio de la Guayana Esequiba sobre el cual Venezuela se reserva expresamente sus derechos soberanos, limita al Este con el nuevo Estado de Guyana, a través de la línea del río Esequibo, tomando éste desde su nacimiento hasta su desembocadura en el Océano Atlántico...”
Tomado de:
Exploiting the vast potential of the ICT age
Posted By Stabroek staff On June 18, 2010 @ 5:11 am In Business
A look at the positive changes which the new Guyana/Suriname fibre optic telecommunications cable system can bring to Guyana
Suriname and Guyana, two of the few remaining countries in the hemisphere with limited international telecommunications access to the rest of the world stand on the threshold of entry into a brave new world of ultra-modern communication with the advent of the new Suriname/Guyana Submarine Cable System (SCSGS).
Up until now, both countries have been confined to inefficient, vulnerable and often unreliable land cables routed through neighbouring French Guiana, rendering their international access to both voice and internet communications heavily reliant on costly satellite capacity.
Eighteen months of elaborate planning and negotiations have finally led to the provision of a submarine cable network linking Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and the outcome, fibre optic access for both Guyana and Suriname to Port of Spain now provides both countries with onward submarine networks that will provide a significant improvement in the telecommunications capabilities of the two South American republics. Executed by the Guyana Telephone and Tele-graph Company (GT&T) in collaboration with the state-run telecommunications service provider TELESUR of Suriname and Glo-bal Marine Systems Limited, a UK-based fibre optic cable systems provider, the SGSCS is set to serve the telecommunications needs of Guyana and Suriname for the next 25 years. The US$65 million investment, endorsed by both governments in December 2008, positions the two countries to infuse a significantly enhanced ICT component into their development planning.
Here in Guyana, GT&T, the local telecommunications service provider says that it has developed “an extensive plan of growth and acquisition” that extends the role of the new submarine cable beyond simply improving the country’s international access. The company asserts that the new cable will open the door to a range of telecommunications services that could otherwise impact significantly on jobs, the economy, enterprise, education, health care, governance, and, by extension on the overall development of Guyana.
Cheaper, enhanced capacity for data and information transfer and speed of transfer – which is what the new submarine cable provides – opens up an exciting range of new ICT possibilities for Guyana. Among those to which GT&T has already pointed are significant enhancements in the capacity of local small and medium enterprises to develop new commercial opportunities and to serve as a catalyst for change in the way in which businesses in Guyana are organized and operate. By embracing the increased broadband communications capacity which the new cable provides local small and medium enterprises will create opportunities to improve both their productivity and their competitiveness.
Larger companies could benefit even more significantly since increased bandwidth access will deliver significant supply chain efficiencies while offering new, more reliable ways of interfacing with markets including online retailing and the exploitation of home-working which will markedly reduce the requirement for office space and other requisites associated with the marketing of goods and services.
One particularly exciting prospect that emerges from the installation of the new submarine cable reposes in its potential to bring Guyana millions of dollars in foreign earnings from the provision of ICT-related services to foreign markets. Analysts of the economic and technological significance of the cable cite the availability of a large number of English-speaking, computer-trained young Guyanese on the one hand and the low wages, on the other, as assets that position Guyana to compete with some of the larger communication offshore centres including India. The prospects for a significantly enhanced level of ICT-related services reposes in several sectors including call centres, medical transcription, data entry, back office processing, engineering design, translation and animation among others. With the July 1 commissioning of the submarine cable system the provision of these and other services will become both much easier and much more affordable.
The mainstream Guyana economy including its agricultural sector will also be contemplating the potential improvements in management, production and marketing techniques which the new cable promises. Local farmers will benefit from a sustained flow of reliable information on such issues as fertilizer use, choice of crops and timing of sowing and harvesting. Market planning can benefit from quick and reliable information on demand and prices which will help determine their supply strategies. Electronic commerce or e-commerce, a service which the new cable now places in the hands of suppliers covers various forms of trade all of which rely on the internet to market, identify, select, pay for and deliver goods and services.
The prospects for electronic governance (e-governance) in the delivery of public value also loom large. From a public sector perspective the new cable opens up the prospect of a significantly improved regime of two-way flow of information between the state and the citizenry including, critically, the facilitation of ongoing discourse between the government and the populace both through the internet and through websites. Here, a persuasive argument can be made for the important role of ICT in enhancing the democratic process by providing citizens with a greater talk back capacity as well as easier access to the decision-making machinery.
At another level both government and the private sector will benefit from enhanced access to the use of the internet in what is often a tedious, paper-driven tender and bidding process for state contracts. Greater website access will allow for wider publication of projects of public interest including the process of assessing bids and awarding contracts, helping to remove concerns about the transparency of the bidding process. The same, of course, applies to the advertisement of consultancies and permanent positions in the state sector.
The new submarine cable is also likely to trigger more aggressive exploitation of ICT in general and broadband in particular by the education sector. It is no secret that the advent of the internet has already resulted in an infinitely enhanced increase in the flow of information across borders, opening up new opportunities for knowledge acquisition through research and enhanced electronic access to books and journals. Distance education and virtual teachers which are already a part of the local education landscape can be significantly boosted by tapping into the enhanced ICT services which the new cable provides.
The gradual expansion and consolidation of ICT services arising out of the firing of the new submarine cable will also create a place for telemedicine (e-health) in Guyana. In the future patients in remote hinterland areas will be technologically equipped to consult with medical practitioners on the coast. Using the facility of telemedicine, doctors and other caregivers will be better positioned to consult with specialists thousands of miles away in real time, providing diagnosis and treatment and, in the process, continually upgrading their own skills. In Guyana’s particular circumstances e-health can contribute significantly to the provision of improved health care among rural and hinterland populations and can also be infused into the network of healthcare services available locally, regionally and internationally.
At the educational and general developmental levels the enhanced ICT capacity which the new cable brings will significantly improve videoconferencing capacity and, in the process, accelerate decision-making, reduce the travel and accommodation costs associated with conventional meetings and conferences and, generally, significantly reduce governance costs. Project monitoring over long distances will also be made significantly easier.
At the social level the increased broadband access which the cable provides will bring fundamental changes to the quality of lives in various simpler but no less significant ways. In homes, children growing up with broadband access are more likely to treat education as a lifelong process and, in the process, will more easily acquire the familiarity with ICT technology which employers will require. Social relationships at the levels of home and community are also likely to be enhanced both by shorter working hours and by the greater facility for working at home. Considerations of reduced stress, more time for family, reduced traffic congestion, choice of physical location and leisure time are all considerations that loom large in a promised enhanced ICT age.
Enhanced broadband access will also create mechanisms that enable the improved delivery of health care for the elderly, providing the elderly and infirm with the facilities – including telemonitoring of health conditions, booking care appointments and grocery delivery services that enable them to live at home rather than remain in hospital or a care home facility.
The case for transformation resulting from access of broadband-enabled ICT can also be extended to the creation of innovative public and private sector programmes aimed at providing enhanced educational opportunities and delivery of public services to the excluded and the marginalized in the society.
GT&T says the equipment and technology utilized in the new submarine cable leads the industry in terms of capability and service guarantee and is “the most efficient in the market” as far as size and power requirements are concerned. The system, it says, “will deliver fully protected capacity to Guyana that equates to over 250,000 simultaneous high quality international telephone conversations or the equivalent of over 4,000 combined DSL connections to the USA.” It is a significant technological leap which challenges Guyana to seize what appears to be a significant juncture on the road to real, multi-faceted development.
Nota del editor del blog: Al referenciarse a la República Cooperativa de Guyana se deben de tener en cuenta los 159.500Km2, de territorios ubicados al oeste del río Esequibo conocidos con el nombre de Guayana Esequiba o Zona en Reclamación sujetos al Acuerdo de Ginebra del 17 de febrero de 1966.
Territorios estos sobre los cuales el gobierno Venezolano en representación de la Nación venezolana se reservo sus derechos sobre los territorios de la Guayana Esequiba en su nota del 26 de mayo de 1966 al reconocerse al nuevo Estado de Guyana .
“...por lo tanto, Venezuela reconoce como territorio del nuevo Estado, el que se sitúa al este de la margen derecha del río Esequibo y reitera ante la comunidad internacional, que se reserva expresamente sus derechos de soberanía territorial sobre la zona que se encuentra en la margen izquierda del precitado río; en consecuencia, el territorio de la Guayana Esequiba sobre el cual Venezuela se reserva expresamente sus derechos soberanos, limita al Este con el nuevo Estado de Guyana, a través de la línea del río Esequibo, tomando éste desde su nacimiento hasta su desembocadura en el Océano Atlántico...”
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