Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications Hon. Ted Richardson proudly witnessed on Friday morning the landing of the Saba, Statia Cable System (SSCS) telecommunications cable at the landing point operated by SMITCOMS (beach manhole) on the Great Bay Beach.
"The benefits for Sint Maarten is that it now has a second fibre optic telecommunications cable system; from a non-commercial perspective, it was facilitated to happen as it creates additional capacity and redundancy for the country along with the SMPR-1 cable; and in term, voice and data costs will ultimately decrease for consumers," Minister of Telecommunications Hon. Ted Richardson said on Sunday.
From day one, Minister Richardson was also insistent that all service providers on Sint Maarten would have access to the second fibre optic cable.
Mnister of Telecommunications Hon. Ted Richardson said he was happy to experience the current developments with respect to this phase of the project after several months of negotiations.
The issues of the landing of this cable was high on the list of priorities established in the Ministry Road Map, and from the onset, the Minister and the Cabinet have worked diligently to bring the discussion back from two-years of stagnation.
and the objective of the Ministry is to increase the quality and infrastructure of telecommunications on Sint Maarten making it available and affordable for each citizen in the country, for consumers and businesses alike.
Back in mid-November the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between St. Maarten International Telecommunications Services (SMITCOMS) and the National Office for the Caribbean Netherlands (RCN) related to the Saba, Statia Cable System (SSCS) took place.
An overview was carried out by the Minister and his Cabinet in August to ascertain what had been done in the past. Thereafter, all parties worked diligently leading to the successful signing of the MOA three months later, mid-November.
The SSCS will bring extra telecommunications capacity for St. Eustatius and Saba, and it will also benefit Sint Maarten.
In November the MOA was signed by SMITCOMS Managing Director E. Louisa while Sybren van Dam, signed on behalf of RCN as its Director.
PHOTO CUTLINE: Minister Hon. Ted Richardson (2nd from left) along with representatives from the Minister’s Cabinet and SMITCOMS.