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