New Undersea Fiberoptic Cabling Project Presented to CZM, Aiming to Boost Connectivity in St. Thomas

On Thursday, members of the Coastal Zone Management committee heard details about a cabling project set to bring fiber connectivity to St. Thomas. Benjamin Keularts of Tysam Tech, the company managing the local leg of the project, noted that this was part of a much larger effort that would run a fiber optic cable from Florida. Branches would terminate in “St. Croix, the BVI, and nine other countries,” Mr. Keularts said. The project under consideration by CZM would go from the main trunk that terminates in Butler Bay and run approximately 15 miles of cable “south and southeast to Magens Bay, where it connects up on the shoreline and runs up to the AT&T building there,” Mr. Keularts explained. Existing undersea cables follow a similar route, he told CZM officials. Environmental concerns are minimal, but the presence of coral in several sections, as well as seagrass that provides habitat for fish, means that “placement will have to be done carefully” in those areas, to prevent damage a...