• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 02 / 15 / 2011

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LIME, the Caribbean subsidiary of London-based Cable & Wireless Communications plc, said it is the “strategic landing partner” in Jamaica of the Cuban-Venezuelan state joint venture that operates the new Venezuela-Cuba-Jamaica fiberoptic cable.

In a press release, LIME said it signed a contract late last year with Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe S.A. to be the strategic landing partner in Jamaica, and for Cable & Wireless to be the carrier of voice and date traffic from Cuba to Europe.

The Île de Batz, a specialized cable-laying vessel chartered by the Chinese subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, on Feb. 14 landed the 178-mile segment of the undersea link in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Beginning in July, the cable will be boosting Cuba’s Internet connectivity and is expected to lower costs for international phone calls.

“Our footprint in the Caribbean is unique, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with TGC and play a role in developing telecommunications in Cuba,” said Tony Rice, CEO at Cable & Wireless Communications.

After buying out Telecom Italia in a $706 million deal, the Cuban government is still looking for a foreign partner in state telecom ETECSA, an official said in Havana last week. In March last year, Rice said C&W wanted to bid for the 27-percent stake, attracted by Cuba’s growth potential in the mobile phone sector. The cable landing, Rice said a year ago, would position Cable & Wireless as a top contender to take over the ETECSA share.

“The starting point is the cable landing, but the greater prize is working with the [Cuban] government to develop its telecoms market,” Rice said a year ago. A Cable & Wireless spokesman later said that reports about an ETECSA stake purchase went “too far.”

Cuba is not only the largest Caribbean market, but it is also the most underdeveloped for broadband and wireless communications in the western hemisphere.

Three private players — LIME, archrival Digicel, and Columbus Communications — bid to be the landing partners in the Jamaica-Cuba leg in 2010.

Lime recently finished installation of its East-West Cable, which completes a Caribbean “network ring” that will triple available bandwidth for Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and British Virgin Islands. LIME also just acquired a majority stake in a Bahamas telecom.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2011/02/15/