Southern Caribbean Fiber, (once known as Antilles Crossing), is an underwater 20
gigabit
The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...
per second (Gbit/s)
fiber optics
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
ring network
A ring network is a network topology in which each node connects to exactly two other nodes, forming a single continuous pathway for signals through each node – a ring. Data travels from node to node, with each node along the way handling ever ...
connecting several nations and overseas territories of the
Caribbean Sea. The initial phase of construction extended from Needham's Point,
Saint Michael,
Barbados to
Saint Croix in the
U.S. Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
where it interconnects with
Global Crossing's worldwide telecommunications network.
Originally built by
TeleBarbados
TeleBarbados Inc. is a recent start-up telecommunications company in the country of Barbados gradually gaining a reputation for malicious phishing activity from their association with the Freemotion webmail domains accessible via mail.free.bb.
St ...
, it is one of the newer important network connections to the
Internet for Barbados, the
Windward and also
Leeward Islands
french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent
, image_name =
, image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis.
, image_alt =
, locator_map =
, location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean
, coor ...
. The company began as a joint venture between
Leucadia National Corporation
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is an American financial services company based in New York City and listed on the Fortune 1000.
Investments
The company's major holdings are as follows:
Financial Services
* Jefferies Group (100%) - investment b ...
and
Barbados Light & Power Holdings Limited with plan to built out the network in four phases.
*Phase I (The red phase) links Barbados, to the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
*Phase II (The grey phase) will see the linking of Barbados firstly to
Tobago and then onward to
Trinidad further south.
*Phase III (The green phase) will see the link from Trinidad traveling Northward to
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
,
Saint Vincent, and
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...
.
*Phase IV (The blue phase) will see a link extended from Saint Lucia Northward to
Martinique,
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...
,
Saint Kitts and Saint Croix in United States Virgin Islands
In 2012 TeleBarbados including its subsea fiber unit Antilles Crossing was acquired by Columbus Communications to form short lived Columbus Networks. Through further consolidation in the region Cable and Wireless Communications led an acquisition of Columbus Communications and out of concerns of competition in 2013 Digicel after outlining objection to the deal between Columbus Communications and C&W, Digicel Group reached a deal to acquire some of the former assets of Columbus Networks and Antilles Crossing along with other fiber assets in the region to maintain competition Digicel completed on September 10, 2014 the acquisition of this and other assets forming Southern Caribbean Fiber.
Original Stake holders
* Antilles Crossing
* Barbados Light & Power,
*
Ectel,
*
Leucadia,
*
Network Research
Participant countries
*Barbados (red),
*Grenada (green),
*Guadeloupe (blue),
*Martinique (blue),
*
Saint Kitts and Nevis (blue),
*Saint Lucia (green),
*
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (green),
*
Trinidad and Tobago (grey),
*United States Virgin Islands (red),
Facts
*USVI—Barbados: 940 km segment
[http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=249672&p=13]
*Total: 3000 km
See also
*
TeleBarbados
TeleBarbados Inc. is a recent start-up telecommunications company in the country of Barbados gradually gaining a reputation for malicious phishing activity from their association with the Freemotion webmail domains accessible via mail.free.bb.
St ...
*
List of international submarine communications cables
This is a list of international submarine communications cables. It does not include domestic cable systems, such as those on the coastlines of Japan, Italy, and Brazil. All the cable systems listed below have landing points in two or more cou ...
References
External links
*
{{Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean
Communications in the Caribbean
Communications in Barbados
Submarine communications cables in the Caribbean Sea
Wide area networks