14 March 2023
On 28 November 2022 it was announced that St Helena Government (SHG) signed a contract with Maestro St Helena Ltd (Maestro) (a company registered in St Helena) to design and build a fibre network across the Island.
Following this, a number of essential preliminary matters have been under discussion and finalisation ahead of substantive project works commencing. In the meantime the project team have been mobilising and are now preparing to establish their physical presence on the Island.
A number of project personnel are expected to begin arriving from Saturday 25 March, with project materials and equipment due to arrive on the upcoming calling of the MV Maria da Paz later this month. Once on Island, the Maestro project team will be based at Bradleys.
The arrival of materials, equipment and personnel signals the beginning of the local delivery stage of the project, which will ultimately see the construction of a future-proofed passive optical network to cover present and future fibre needs. In addition, it will see construction of a wireless system which can also be used to deliver fibre-like speeds to provide connectivity to more remote locations around the Island.
The contract with Maestro is for the design, build and transfer of a new local network for St Helena. This will be a network owned by SHG, ensuring the long-term interests of the Island can be best achieved and the taxpayer realises the best possible value from fibre optic connectivity.
Minister for Treasury, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development, Mark Brooks, said:
“This is a significant project that will have a substantial impact on the Island for generations to come, so I am very pleased to see on-Island mobilisation efforts start to take effect. There has been a significant amount of work going on in the background with SHG and Maestro officials, and we expect to see wider works beginning shortly.”
SHG
14 March 2023