Officials of WestTel, WestStar broke ground Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) project in Grand Cayman on Friday. (L-R): Pauline Biron, WestTel Technical Project Manager; Lewie Hydes, WestTel VP of Networks; Mike Edenholm, WetTel CEO; Larry Cayasso, ABC Trenching; Mike Martin, WestStar and CITN Director/General Manager; Calvin Morton, WestTel VP Sales and Marketing

Officials of WestTel and WestStar TV together with ABC Trenching broke ground on a $15 million, seven-year project delivering Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) in Grand Cayman on Friday.

Fibre-to-the-Premises is highly superior compared to traditional networks with high capacity communications solutions delivered on a fibre optic platform, outperforming copper based networks, WestTel said in a press release on Monday.

“We have consciously chosen to direct our attention and substantial investment to what our customers say is most important – service,” said WestTel CEO Mike Edenholm.

“With the fibre roll out, we are able to raise the standard of telecommunications in Grand Cayman, offering faster and more reliable data and voice services at affordable prices.”

WestTel will install fibre directly into the business or home, making more bandwidth available. This option, the company said, is a larger investment for WestTel than combining with existing coaxial or copper infrastructure, but is ideal for customers who need the fastest connection speeds available.

The fibre network also creates redundancy for WestTel’s existing infrastructure making it more resilient while eliminating latency, the company added.

The first phase is focused on delivering fibre-optic infrastructure to corporations. Initially, the network will go from Television Centre to Camana Bay, then up West Bay Road to Governors Square.

Technical Project Manager Pauline Biron said:

“We are rolling out fibre to corporations first because they demand super high-speed data and voice services, particularly in the financial sector which depends heavily on communications networks to conduct business.”

Phase Two will be deploying Triple Play: HDTV, High-speed Data, and Voice to residences along West Bay Road. Phases 3 through 7 will bring fibre coverage throughout the rest of Grand Cayman.


About Fibre

Telephone companies began using fibre-optic technology in the late 1970s to cover long distances. Today more than 80% of the world’s long-distance voice and data traffic is carried over optical fibre (CISCO, 2008). The difference between fibre and copper is that instead of using electrical pulses to transmit information, fibre uses light. The advantages of fibre are speed, bandwidth, resistance to interference, and reduced maintenance costs. Initially, fibre was used in long-distance applications because of the high cost related to installing fibre-optic systems, but because the price of fibre has come down considerably there has been a trend to switch from copper infrastructure to fibre in recent years.


Applications

Fibre-optic technology has many applications, but in terms of communication fibre is used for traditional telephone service, transmission of data, digital video, and broadband signals such as HDTV. Fibre can be delivered several ways including: Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), Fibre to the Node (FTTN), and Fibre to the Kerb (FTTK). The difference between these deliveries is the distance between the fibre and the end user. Fibre to the Premises minimizes the use of copper or coaxial cable.

Although fibre became popular in long-distance applications, the technology is now used in shorter distances because of increased internet use and demand for data transmission. In addition to fibre cabling having more bandwidth capacity, fibre is more secure than copper. Fibre also offers increased pulling tension and takes up less space under raised flooring and in risers.

The three types of fibre-optic cable are glass, plastic, and plastic clad silica (PCS). Glass has the lowest attenuation rate, plastic has the highest attenuation and the attenuation rate of PCS is in between that of glass and plastic.

(Source: www.ciscopress.com; www.telebyteusa.com; www.processor.com; Wikipedia; www.arcelect.com)