The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has embarked on a national fibre ring project that will connect to the Arcos-1 system.
Currently Arcos-1 is the TCI’s only connection to the US, South America, and other Caribbean islands. In a tender document, the government specifies that the fibre ring must connect the TCI’s main inhabited islands from the westernmost Providenciales to the easternmost Grand Turk. The project is currently seeking a consultant to “identify the optimum routes for the buildout of a fibre link… including redundancy and routes for connectivity to/by international fibre links.”
Providenciales already has international fibre connectivity, but the other islands rely on microwave wireless transmission. The tender document notes that the quality of service for this technology is affected by both capacity issues as well as environmental disruption from tropical storms, which can severely damage the transmission equipment and supporting infrastructure.
