Texas firm wins $31M Guantánamo fiber-optic contract

Posted on Thursday, 05.15.14



Texas firm wins $31M Guantánamo fiber-optic contract

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

CROSENBERG@MIAMIHERALD.COM



The Defense Department on Thursday awarded a Texas firm, Xtera

Communications Inc., a $31 million contract to build Guantánamo's

undersea fiber-optic cable connecting the remote U.S. Navy base in

southeast Cuba with South Florida.



Eight firms competed for the contract, a Pentagon notice said.



The work has an estimated completion date of December 2015, the

announcement said. The U.S. Southern Command in South Florida will

supervise the contract but spokesmen there were not able to say Thursday

when the communications link would be up and running.



The project is a major investment in upgrading services at the remote

U.S. Navy base of about 6,000 residents, including about 2,200 soldiers

and other temporary staff at the prison camps currently holding 154

captives.



In September, a senior Defense Department official testified at the

Guantánamo war court that the cable would be robust enough to someday

provide fiber-optic services to the entire island of Cuba.



The Miami Herald first disclosed plans for a $40 million undersea cable

more than a year ago, quoting sources as saying it would be put under

the sea from this base in southeast Cuba through the Windward Passage to

an undisclosed link in South Florida.



Spokesmen for Xtera, based in Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb, did not

respond to a question Thursday of whether it had cut the proposed

project by $9 million in its bid, or whether other firms would be

required to do additional work to get the project up and running.



Source: Texas firm wins $31M Guantánamo fiber-optic contract -

Guantánamo - MiamiHerald.com -

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/15/4119740/texas-firm-wins-31m-guantanamo.html