Virgin Islands Next Generation Network board members were updated Tuesday on all aspects of the government’s ongoing broadband construction project, from the laying of fiber to the opening of new public computer centers on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
Opening up the meeting, the board’s vice-chairman Alfred Boschulte spoke about site visits made last month by federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program officials. Boschulte said one of the visits included a virtual tour of construction sites on St. Thomas and St. Croix – seven public computer centers and viNGN’s business hub in Frederiksted.
Boschulte said a physical site visit was also conducted during the week of April 15, which was followed by several days of meetings with the governor and other viNGN officials as well as tours of public computer centers that had already opened or were in the process of having equipment installed.
Updates on fiber installation on all three islands, the development of fiber access points, job training and placement activities, and the roll out of viNGN’s digital literacy campaign were also given, according to a recent viNGN news release.
During Tuesday’s meeting, viNGN Vice President Kevin Hughes said the organization is gearing up to open a second set of public computer centers on all three islands.
“We are going through the last phases of confirmation with our vendor on installation – all the equipment is there, our team is now checking it, loading software, putting on tags and after that, we should be able to open them up,” Hughes told the board.
On St. Croix, the planned sites for the new centers are the Florence Williams Public Library, the Regional Library for the Blind, Athalie McFarlane Petersen Public Library and St. Patrick’s Learning Center, among others.
On St. Thomas, the next set of sites includes the Charles Wesley Turnbull Regional Library, the Long Path Community Center, Lovenlund Community Center and Wesley Methodist Church.
Board members spoke about sites, such as one planned for the Mon Bijoux community on St. Croix, that need to be renovated so that all “easy access points” are closed up and the equipment can be fully secured.
Hughes assured the board that all equipment in the centers is locked in place, tagged and monitored during the day by a site administrator.
At the computer centers, users can take an eight-week “Digital Literacy Training” course, which introduces general computer and Internet skills. The course is made available through a partnership with viNGN, CyberLearning Inc. and the National Education Foundation. At the end of the training, participants receive a certificate issued by the State University of New York.
Once the Digital Literacy class is completed, users will be able to access other training courses. Hughes said Tuesday that while the company has seen approximately 1,100 people sign up, only about 520 of them have completed the course.
“The other 600 are in the process and we want to make sure that they continue to progress,” Hughes said.
Residents are urged to sign up for the program on www.vingn.com. The program and other types of training are free until June 30.
Board members also learned that close to 250 residents have applied for the 80 new tech jobs being offered by viNGN contractor ConnectSpace.vi, which has been hosting a TeleWorks Boot Camp – classes that prepare students for jobs with technical support provider Support.com. None of the positions have been filled yet, but four offers have been made, company officials said, adding that another 40 opening should be announced soon.
ViNGN is also moving ahead with construction of its network and officials announced Tuesday that more than $34 million in related federal funds have been awarded to date. At the board’s meeting last month, viNGN President Larry Kupfer was authorized to negotiate a contract with J. Benton Construction for the construction of seven fiber access points throughout the territory.
On Tuesday, J. Benton Construction was awarded a $907,000 contract for the construction of seven manholes for viNGN’s submarine fiber optic cable landing sites. The landing points on St. Croix are Altona Lagoon and Frederiksted, while the landing points on St. Thomas are in Great Bay and Brewers Bay.
ViNGN officials said proposals for three fiber access points on St. John are currently being evaluated, along with proposals for a network operations center.
Wrapping up on a positive note, board members were told that work on the build-out of the actual network is progressing, with the installation of aerial fibers and laying of underground conduits continuing on all three islands. ViNGN officials said that paving repairs should be finished on St. Croix this month, while road repairs on St. Thomas should be finished by mid-June.
ViNGN is a wholly owned public corporation organized to create a broadband fiber optic network in the territory. It was funded primarily from a grant by the National Telecommunications Information Administration as part of a federal program to improve the broadband capacity in the territories.
