PHILIPSBURG:--- 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.
Minister 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 benefits for Sint Maarten is that it now has a second fiber optic telecommunications cable system; it creates additional capacity and redundancy for the country along with the SMPR 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 the Minister was insistent that all service providers on Sint Maarten would have access to the cable, 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.
Minister Richardson and members of his Cabinet were very instrumental in facilitating the process in bringing the two signatory parties together reaching to the point of the signing of the MOA in mid-November.
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.