Georgetown : The Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) Chief Executive Officer Bharrat Dindyal says that the security provisions that will be attached to the fiber optic cable that it is installing will be far greater than that of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Dindyal in a recent interview with this publication said the way in which the cable will be installed would make it far more secured that that of GT&T.
He explained that firstly the cables will be installed above the current transmission cables used for electricity, “so it is really inaccessible to people unless you are trying to get killed.”
Dindyal also told this publication that the number of pairs of cables that will be installed assumes that over time there will be breakage but the power company will have the capacity to switch between the strands of fiber being used. “We have a kind of redundancy that would allow us operation for a very long time,” Dindyal said.
He said too that that the cable itself will not require any significant amount of maintenance save for a case where it is damaged and will require specialized skills to re-splice/repair it.
The network, he explained, will have a lifespan of some 50 years pointing out that the “only issue we have is if a structure comes tumbling down.”
The Power Company’s boss stressed that the cables are very strong and that they are embedded in galvanized steel, “its kind of armoured on the outside.”
When asked why not opt for leasing bandwidth from GT&T bandwidth given GPL’s financial constraints Dindyal firstly pointed to the security considerations saying that “GT&T can’t match it…they don’t have a transmission line to secure a cable above it…We have it and nobody else has it.”
He further stressed that, “the level of security that we could bring to that cable is unmatched.”
Dindyal also added that GPL will, if the need arises, be able to share bandwidth with possibly other government agencies. He however warned that this is not a route that they are advocating because, “we are looking at this as a backbone for other developments in the company.”
Dindyal opined that one of the more pertinent aspects of the cable that he wishes to point out is the importance of electricity and the need to have it secured. “We have a wonderful opportunity to put in a system that is absolutely almost secure.”
He denied though that the power company has been silent on the cable saying that there have been pronouncements on the matter. “We said that with this sophisticated system that we are rolling out it can’t be managed manually; it’s got to be done automatically.”
Dindyal could not at the time give a breakdown of how the US$42M loan will be expended saying that the cable is but an element of an overhead lightening shield, “its built into the lightening shield…it’s not a separate cost per say.”
The GPL CEO also sought to point out that it is an “incremental cost” adding that it is not a case where someone would have to install an ADSS (All-Dielectric Self-Supporting) cable separately.
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