CABLE & WIRELESS' (C&W) new $10 million network operations centre now allows the telecommunications giant to identify problems with its services even before the customer recognises them.

This disclosure was made by Chris Hetherington, chief executive officer for C&W in the Caribbean and the Americas as he addressed local and regional media at the launch of the new 24-hour monitoring facility housed at C&W's Barbados headquarters in Wildey, St Michael, yesterday.

The network operations centre monitors the function and performance of C&W's fixed line, mobile and broadband networks, as well as global interconnections, through systems that detect, report and record any faults on any of its networks across the region.

Hetherington said that the facility was the "cornerstone"

of a broader $560 million investment that C&W was making in its network systems across the Caribbean.

As he congratulated C&W on the regional monitoring facility, acting Prime Minister Reginald Farley said the network operations centre gave "full life" to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

He also praised C&W for being a "most responsible partner" in Barbados' transition toward a liberalised telecommunciations environment, which started under his tenure as minister of telecommunications in the mid-1990s.

He added that as Government sought to persuade international companies to choose Barbados for their regional headquarters, it was important to have in place the technological infrastructure that such companies could leverage to their advantage.

The network operating centre is only one of three that C&W operates across the world, with the other two in Panama and Macau in Asia. (CH)