THE government is continuing its push to make Internet access available to homes across the country, and President Bharrat Jagdeo says he has asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to support the plan for computers for poor families here. He said he raised this with Mr. Chavez during his first official visit to Venezuela last week.
Reiterating his administration’s ambitious plan to provide cheap Internet access to all households in Guyana, particularly low-income houses, he Friday said a modern fibreoptic grid would be built on the same infrastructure to be put up for a new high-power electricity transmission line.
A Chinese firm has been contracted to build a modern electricity grid from Crabwood Creek, on the Corentyne, to Leonora on the West Coast Demerara within the next two years, he noted.
Mr. Jagdeo told a press conference he met representatives of the Chinese company when he headed the Caribbean Community delegation to the Shanghai 2010 trade earlier this month.
He reported that the same infrastructure for this up-to-date transmission line will be used to run a modern fibreoptic cable grid “which could catapult us forward.”
The President said that in Shanghai, he also met officials of the Chinese company which will be building this fibre backbone from Crabwook Creek to Pomeroon and to Linden.
The government will be collaborating with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company and others on also establishing a wi-fi system to support another project to get cheap Internet access to all households, particularly low-income houses, he said.
“If we have the modern grid and Internet access, then those kids will not be left behind,” he said.
In January this year, the President announced that the government was procuring the necessary infrastructure to introduce a second fibre optic cable from neighbouring Brazil.
He said this was part of the bold initiative by the government to advance the sectors and applications that are vital to the modernisation of Guyana.
With the new communication system in place, the President expects that all social institutions, including schools, hospitals and police stations, will be connected. Included on the list would be those who are unable to afford Internet access.
“This cable would be dedicated purely to E-Governance… and we hope that we can work with GT&T to swap capacity on these cables, so that we’ll have greater reliability, greater redundancy,” President Jagdeo said.
GT&T has commissioned a new fibreoptic cable from Suriname, and the other from Brazil is projected to complement this.
At the ceremony marking the landing of the underwater cable here from Suriname, the President reiterated that this new plan is not intended to infringe on GT&T’s ability to earn money, but is part of the commitment of the government to ensure that Guyana benefits from as many fibre optic cables as possible.
“It would greatly enhance our ability; Guyana as a destination for ICT (Information Communication Technology) investments…We hope that with this cable coming here with other cables that may be passing through Guyana, that we will be able to correct that single factor that has acted as a deterrent to a rapid expansion of employment opportunities and services in the ICT sector,” President Jagdeo said.