The 560km cable runs overland from the Guyanan capital Georgetown, on the Atlantic coast, to the town of Lethem, which borders with Brazil, with a submarine cable crossing the river at Kurupukari.
The cable has been built in 10 kilometre sections linked by joint boxes. Five repeater stations are still being built, but the work is expected to be completed by the end of March. The project has been disrupted by heavy rains and flooding, as well as one deliberate cut while the laying has been in progress, according to the local Kaieteur News.
The installation of the cable has been carried out by Huawei, Oi and the Guyanan company, E-Network.
Work on the Guyana-Brazil cable was begun in January 2011, as part of the government’s plan to improve internet access in Guyana. The government has launched a project, called “One Laptop Per Family”, which will place 90,000 laptops in the hands of poor families, and hopes to provide free internet access to all communities across the country.
The Guyana-Brazil cable will connect at Georgetown to Guyana’s only subsea cable system, the Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System (SG-SCS). This 1,241km cable links Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, and was built by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) and the Suriname telco, Telesure for the cost of $60 million.
