Tyco, Antilles Crossing International ink submarine fiber contract
August 16, 2005 Morristown, NJ -- Tyco Telecommunications, a supplier of undersea fiber-optic networks and marine services, today announced the signing of a multi-million dollar turnkey contract with Antilles Crossing International, for the construction of an undersea fiber-optic cable network called the Antilles Crossing Undersea Fiber Optic Cable System. The 940-km system will have direct landings at Hamm's Bay, St. Croix; Vigie Beach, St. Lucia; and Needham's Point, Barbados. In addition, the system will allow for future connectivity to Tortola via an underwater branch unit that will be deployed as part of the initial installation.
Under the terms of the contract, Tyco will supply all aspects of the project, including network design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, and testing. Planned for completion in late 2005, the network is designed to satisfy increased demands for voice, data, and Internet bandwidth, and the accelerating use of broadband services in the Eastern Caribbean region.
According to Tyco, existing undersea cable systems that service the region were deployed in the mid- to late 1990s; the technology used in these older systems is dated by at least two generations. As such, the company says that islands in the Antilles chain have been limited in the extent to which they can participate in any meaningful way in the bandwidth explosion occurring in the rest of the world.
"Our ability to rapidly deliver a state-of-the-art turnkey system solution enables Antilles Crossing International to provide their customers with the benefits of a high capacity network infrastructure, and directly facilitates international connectivity," comments Michael Rieger, vice president of sales and marketing for Tyco Telecommunications. "When completed, this network will provide enough bandwidth to permit millions of simultaneous telephone calls as well as numerous other bandwidth intensive applications such as telemedicine, distance learning, etc., that cannot be serviced by the existing infrastructure."