Anyone have any clue how to get it touch with Glenn Godfrey Company's? I to am looking into escapeing to a work environment.
Please..help brother out here....9 days to go...bags packed...limo to airport ordered..still gotta pick up the Dom P. for the first night celebration! Can't sleep either...geez

Govt. telecom system uses new technology

Representatives of L.G.
Electronics, the giant Korean
Corporation that is contracted to
provide government with its own
high speed communication
network, are in town this week to
provide details of the system.
News 5's Stewart Krohn met with
them this morning and was told that the wide band
C.D.M.A. technology, originally developed for military
use, is ideal for Belize's terrain and low population
density. The way the system will work is that Belize
City, Belmopan and each town will have its own tower
and wireless transceiver that will interact with local
terminals at schools and government offices. Each
town and city will then be connected via fibre optic
lines that will be integrated with the neutral wire of
B.E.L.'s nation-wide high voltage electricity grid. The
international connection will join the network in Belize
City using a new underwater fibre optic line that links
much of the Caribbean to North and South America.
L.G.'s Kyeong Woo Lee explained the system's
advantages.

Kyeong Woo Lee, L.G. Electronics
"It's very easy to deploy and very low initial
investments. So it can make possible high speed
Internet connections, which is three hundred and
eighty-four KBPS, the maximum speed of the, data
speed. So this one can communicate broad band data
communication to government, organisations, and to
schools and all over the Belizean territories."

Godfrey says deal is good for Belize

While the system is designed
primarily for data and Internet
use, a limited amount of voice
transmission will also be
provided. But the equipment
can be upgraded and expanded
to form the nucleus of a full
national telecommunications
system. Glenn Godfrey, whose company,
International Telecommunications Limited,
partnered with L.G. on the project, was asked if the
government contract wasn't just a way to give
I.T.L. a head start to compete head to head with
B.T.L. when that company's monopoly ends in
January of 2003.

Glenn Godfrey, President, I.T.L.
"I would not deny that I have ambitions of competing
with B.T.L. But initially the system does not compete
with B.T.L., it will have to be significantly upgraded.
This system is exclusively for high speed data,
something that the schools need and that B.T.L. is
not providing."

Stewart Krohn
"But when the B.T.L. monopoly ends at the end of
2002, certainly this system is the nucleus of a system
that could provide data and telephony to the private
sector?"

Glenn Godfrey
"Yes, it's capable of doing that. In fact, I have offered
government, in writing, a buy back. We're lending
them the money from Asia to buy the system and
we're saying that if in two years you're unhappy with
the system, we will buy it back for exactly what you
paid for it, plus interest. It's very, very cost effective.
If you look at what B.T.L. paid for instance, they paid
nine million dollars to run fibre optics from here to
Belmopan alone. This twenty million dollars will cover
the entire country with fibre optics, plus do the
wireless local loops, plus provide five thousand
computers."

"Our undertaking with government is that it will cost
no more than ninety percent of what they're paying
now to do what they're doing, plus provide the
schools. So that would mean that government is in a
win-win situation. My real ambition is only to provide
telecommunications for the zones, the E.P.Z.'s, the
data processing zones. I don't have any large
ambition of coming out, except if B.T.L. makes it
impossible for me to function by failing to provide
interconnection between the zones, then I have no
alternative. But certainly the general carrier, they
have problems running down people for fifty dollar
bills. It's not the type of business I would find terribly
attractive. I would far prefer to stay in the zones."

Stewart Krohn
"One final question, former People's United Party
minister obviously carries a lot of weight with the
present government. There is a lot of suspicion
amongst the general public that the favours that are
being done for Glenn Godfrey now are being done for a
reason, that there is a quid pro quo involved? What is
that quid pro quo or how do you fit into that?"

Glenn Godfrey
"First of all I don't...Certainly on this project I feel I
have a lot of public support. People want another
carrier. That's without doubt. The other benefits I've
gotten, I think in this for instance, what is the
benefit? We have been providing the financing in the
form of a loan. We're taking the risk in that if it
doesn't work government can hand it back to us and
say, "here is it." and then we have to pay back the
loan because it's basically funds that we have
guaranteed. So I think it's a good deal for
government, I think the other projects that I'm
involved in are all good deals for government and
certainly I don't find anybody else saying "I am
prepared to put up twenty million dollars to set up
something for schools." Do you know anybody who's
willing to do that?"

Godfrey said that by September, phase one of the
school Internet project will be up and running in
Belize City and Ladyville. While L.G. will be supplying
the computers and high speed Internet
connections, it will be up to the Ministry of
Education to train teachers and develop a relevant
curriculum. Godfrey also said that he has not ruled
out working with B.T.L., emphasising that would be
the best solution for Belize. Talks, he said, are in
their early stages.

Glen Godfrey's company ph# 011 501 23 3530

This is all extremely interesting to me, though I'm not sure I understand all of the politics. All I know is that if I can get high speed internet access (including the transfer of voice files) my husband and I ARE THERE in a few years for more than just a quick vacation. Keep us posted on the prospects!

Kathy