The chairman of a Cayman-based submarine cable company has warned that the Cayman’s communications links to the outside world will be hanging by “a thin and fraying thread”, because the government has not yet replaced ageing telecommunications submarine cables, which are now nearing the end of their useful life.

A government report, delayed by many months, and heavily redacted, had offered a provisional timeline for a construction start date of January 2023 for new subsea cables, which was expected to be operational by mid-2025.

But even today, it is nowhere near breaking ground for a critical project that is estimated to take at least 30 months.

The report was issued as a general media release earlier this month, after a freedom of Information request by the Cayman News Service, and it immediately became controversial.

The CNS headline read: “Redacted report reveals little to justify subsea cable”. The article said: “The redactions block figures that might show costs to build and manage the new cable as well as details of its proposed destination, making it hard for the public to see the justification for it”.

The Cayman Compassquoted Bob Taylor, a director of a company currently building a cable from California to Singapore: “Even if you have the money and the project is approved, which we know takes a long time in Cayman, every company that does this kind of work is contracted out for the next several years.”

He said that even in a perfect world, it would be five years before a cable could be landed in Cayman, and probably longer because the government will have to recruit and staff a new government office and deal with the complexities of the islands’ procurement process.

Mr Taylor said Cayman’s communications links to the outside world will be “hanging by a thin and fraying thread“.

“I still don’t think government is taking this seriously enough,” he added.

Cayman’s technical experts have advised that the MAYA-1 subsea cable is reaching the end of its useful life, and other countries using it have already invested in replacement cables. Consultants recommended pumping $100 million of public funds into the project.

The business case study produced by Grant Thornton suggests a new government cable company could be set up to manage and run the operation.

A separate technical report called for by the government indicated that the Cayman Islands cannot rely on the existing cable availability beyond the immediate short term.

Mr Taylor questioned the proposed methodology proposed by consultants, comparing it to Cayman Airways, which has faced financial challenges. He said the government had ignored the risks for too long and now face a race against time.

The Compass quoted him: “One of the reasons government needs to intervene is that this is not a viable commercial project. Cayman has a poor regulatory environment and is just too small to make it profitable for a private company.”

Cayman has already spent KY$1.39 million (US$1,664,664 million) or more in preliminary decisions that include contracting Cambridge Management Consulting Ltd, the global consultancy known for its specialised submarine cable project development practice.

Two subsea cables currently service the island; the Cayman-Jamaica Fiber System, which was laid in 1997 by C&W Networks and runs from Jamaica to the Caymans; and the Maya-1 consortium cable which runs from Florida in the US to Colombia via Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and the Caymans and went live around the year 2000.

A government press release in November said that Cayman will strengthen its international connectivity for global business and communication, reinforcing their commitment to the global telecommunications infrastructure.

The release said the advancement of this initiative comes at the culmination of extensive work by the team at the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, demonstrating the government's dedication to enhancing the nation's capabilities and ensuring seamless international connectivity on a global scale.