SLT eyes U.S. grant to establish cutting-edge submarine cable construction and deployment training facility

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is in negotiations with the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) for a grant to set up a cutting-edge submarine cable construction and deployment training facility, at its training centre located in Welisara.

“The U.S. government, through the USTDA, is in discussions for a possible grant. If we secure this grant, we will try to set up a training facility for submarine cable construction, deployment and so on. Nothing has been finalised; we hope it will come through,” a top SLT official told Mirror Business. 

Meanwhile, SLT Group Chairman Rohan Fernando revealed to the shareholders that SubCom, LLC, a U.S.-based industry-leading supplier of undersea communications systems and services, had agreed to source the latest telecommunication technology knowledge through SLT’s training centre in Welisara.

SubCom last year won the US $ 600 million contract to build the Southeast Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) submarine telecommunications cable. SLT, which is a consortium partner of the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine telecommunications cable, has invested US $ 40-50 million in the project.

“We have started to invest in the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable system as a consortium partner, whilst constructing a cable landing station in Matara, with the planned project completion to be in 2Q of 2025,” SLT CEO Janaka R. Abeysinghe said.

This three-year construction period includes the process of laying 22,000 km of undersea fibre cables, construction of land network and equipment installations in all participating countries, from Europe to Singapore.

According to SLT, the SEA-ME-WE 6 is estimated to provide an additional 12 Tbps of capacity, further boosting Sri Lanka’s regional competitive advantage as a business hub.

Meanwhile, SLT last year commenced development, expansion and enhancement of the training centre in Welisara, to upgrade it to an institution of technology and obtain the ‘University’ status from the University Grants Commission.

Upon completion, SLT expects to increase the number of students to an average of 2,000 per annum and to engage the staff and youth of Sri Lanka in high-end IT education. (NF)