GOVERNMENT continues to push into its final stage of its E-Governance programme on which $3.1B is being spent to install infrastructure networks,inclusive of fibre-optic cables and twin tracks that will realise high speed delivery of e-Government content and internet. The project is set to wrap up in September and recipients of government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative are to benefit.
E-Governance usually falls under three sections: E-administration, which is aimed at improving government processes especially in the public Sector;  E-services, aimed at improving the delivery of public services, for example, providing public documents online (such as birth certificates); and E-Democracy which is aimed at involving greater participation by the public in the decision making process of a country.
Government aims to deliver technology driven information through the installation of 580 kilometres of high speed fibre-optic network spanning from Lethem, Region 9 to Providence, East Bank Demerara, with drop off repeater sites in Lethem, Annai, Kurupukari and Mabura and another high speed fibre-optic backhaul network connecting Moleson Creek, Region 6 to Anna Regina, Region 2. The establishment of a data centre for the development of e-Government with high speed wireless access using a 4G network also forms part of the programme.
As the project advances, E-Governance Project Coordinator Alexi Ramotar said work is on-going to correct cables that would have, due to difficult terrain, been incorrectly laid in some areas.
 “We are currently doing a lot of corrective works on the Lethem fibre cable. There are areas, especially Mabura to Kurupukari, where the fibre optic is very up close to the ground. We were looking for one-meter deep in those areas, but unfortunately because of the terrain, the contractors were not able to meet that requirement; so what we are doing now is a lot of corrective work,” Ramotar said. Five hundred and eighty km of cables were laid in 2011 from Lethem to Providence.
As the contractor corrects the inaccuracy, they are also working on the repeater sites in the area, he said.

 “The area does not have electricity, we have to use solar sites; so right now we are working with Cummings Electrical who has been doing installation of the solar sites. We expect this to continue for another two to three weeks, and at the same time, we will continue to do whatever corrective works we have to do,” he said.
The repeater sites are necessary for the movement of e-governance information to and from Lethem to the Data Centre in Georgetown. The sites will utilise Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), the newest form of technology, and will also serve to boost the ICT signal along the infrastructure network
Meanwhile, the testing site aback of Castellani House, Georgetown, is operational, and on-going testing of the core network to power the programme is being done, Ramotar said. The testing site was recently outfitted with GPL power and will soon switch over to this source of electricity permanently, but will be backed up with two generators in the event of a blackout.
“We have a LTE (Long Term Evolution) site set up in this location,” Ramotar said, referring to the test site at Castellani, “and what we will be doing there is testing to make sure all the equipment is working, the power is working, if there is a power outage that we can switch over to the generator automatically, if the generator fails, switch over to the second generator…we tested the LTE site to see if we have the range we expect and there is no interference in the frequency,” he said.
This testing is expected to continue for another month.

As it relates to the coastal aspect of the project, he said that this was delayed as there was need to re-design the LTE sites on the coast.
“We have three designs that Huawei has proposed to us and we are looking through those designs and looking at the best one and then we will go ahead with construction.”
Ramotar said by mid-April, Huawei will put up about 15 LTE sites which should be in various areas, such as Enmore and Georgetown.
Government’s E-Governance project started in late 2009 with a concept that was designed over a year-and-a- half, but actual work on the programme began in late 2011.
The 4G network cloud system will serve as the premier data centre for all government information and will provide Guyanese and local businesses with faster and more efficient internet access. The cables will hook up government entities across the country, providing them internet accessibility for activities such as video conferencing and document signing via electronic signatures, hence precluding the need for hinterland or far off residents to travel long distances to access same.
Students also stand to benefit significantly from this programme and an electronic library will be created utilising open software.