Twenty one sites including fifteen schools will soon be provided with upgraded internet service through an initiative of the NTRC.
The government entity recently signed a contract with Telecommunications Company Flow for the second School’s Project here, which according to Director of the NTRC Apollo Knights is costing some $2.5 million.
The first NTRC School’s project was commissioned on 6th June, 2012 by Telecommunications provider Flow at a cost of $5.2 million. According to Knights the reduced cost of the second phase of this project is accredited to the access points that were already laid out from the initial project.
Acting Country Manager of Flow, Andrea Liverpool said this project is an important one since it supports the company’s broadband expansion strategy and aligns to their commitment to deliver a high quality broadband service. Liverpool added that Flow will continue to support government’s strategic initiatives.
With higher speeds and a lower cost there is now only one connection per school over the hybrid network provided by (Flow) Columbus. Under this new contract, the twenty-one new sites will have fibre connections.
The Fifteen school sites include: Campden Park Secondary, Bishop’s College Kingstown, Dr. J P Eustace Memorial, Girls’ High School, Intermediate High School, St. Joseph’s Convent Kingstown, St. Martin’s Secondary, St. Vincent Grammar School, Thomas Sanders Secondary, St Mary’s Roman Catholic, C. W. Prescod Primary, the Kingstown Preparatory School, and the three campuses of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College. Other sites include: the Kingstown Public Library, Documentation Centre, open spots at Heritage Square and SVG Port Authority. Users will obtain upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps respectively.
The 21 new external access points and 13 internal access points under this project will bring the total to 249 external access points and 136 internal points throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The duration of this new project is five years. The contract was signed at the NTRC’s conference room on Wednesday 23rd October, 2019.
