National ICT Strategic Plan Government of St Kitts and Nevis The northern section of the 1 Tbps GCN cable is has recently (February – March 2006) finished construction. It connects Guadeloupe with St. Croix and Puerto Rico and lands in St. Kitts (branch) and St. Martin (See Fig. 29). The St. Croix – Puerto Rico segment is being built by Centennial, one of the partners in the project. A planned southern section will connect Martinique, Dominica (branch) and eventually Trinidad & Tobago. The € 21.9 million project is 75% publicly funded with € 7 million coming from the Region Guadeloupe, €9.4 million from the European Union (FEDER) and the rest from the private sector partners which include Groupe Loret, AT&T, Alcatel, Centennial and Global Crossing. Business people, public officials, and residential customers alike complain about C&W’s high prices and, secondarily, about its network reliability. The increased competition that should result from the GCN cable landing in St Kitts may result in the price of telephone services declining and becoming more affordable for most customers. Market forces may result in universal improved service and pricing without governmental intervention. Northern Section of Global Caribbean Network (GCN) Ministry of Finance, Sustainable Development, Information and Technology November, 2006 23