Antilles Crossing is an underwater 20 gigabit

Gigabit

The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...

 per second (Gbit/s) fiber optics ring network

Ring network

A ring network is a network topology in which each node connects to exactly two other nodes, forming a single continuous pathway for signals through each node - a ring...

 connecting several countries in the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

.

It was built by TeleBarbados

TeleBarbados

TeleBarbados Inc. is a recent start-up telecommunications company in the country of Barbados.Started as one of the first competitors in the new liberalised telecommunications market of Barbados, TeleBarbados is reforming itself to be a major competitor of the long time monopolistic incumbent...

, and is one of the newer important network connections to the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 for Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 countries in the Windward

Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles, within the West Indies.-Name and geography:The Windward Islands are called such because they were more windward to sailing ships arriving in the New World than the Leeward Islands, given that the prevailing trade winds in the...

 and Leeward Islands

Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

. The company is a joint venture between Leucadia National Corporation and Barbados Light & Power Holdings Limited

Barbados Light and Power Company

The Barbados Light & Power Company Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Light & Power Holdings and currently the sole electricity utility provider in the country of Barbados...

. It currently extends from Needham's Point, Saint Michael, Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

 to Saint Croix

Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of...

 in the U.S. Virgin Islands

United States Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...

 where it interconnects with Global Crossing

Global Crossing

Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provides computer networking services worldwide. It maintained a large backbone and offered transit and peering links, VPN, leased lines, audio and video conferencing, long distance telephone, managed services, dialup, colocation and...

's world-wide telecommunications network.

The network is being built in 4 phases.

• Phase I (The red phase) links Barbados, to the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
• Phase II (The grey phase) will see the linking of Barbados firstly to Tobago
  Tobago
  Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
  
   and then onward to Trinidad
  Trinidad
  Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
  
   further south.
• Phase III (The green phase) will see the link from Trinidad traveling Northward to Grenada
  Grenada
  Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
  
  , Saint Vincent
  Saint Vincent (island)
  Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...
  
  , and Saint Lucia
  Saint Lucia
  Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
  
  .
• Phase IV (The blue phase) will see a link extended from Saint Lucia Northward to Martinique
  Martinique
  Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
  
  , Guadeloupe
  Guadeloupe
  Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
  
  , Saint Kitts
  Saint Kitts
  Saint Kitts Saint Kitts Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island (Saint-Christophe in French) is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean...
  
   and Saint Croix in United States Virgin Islands

Stake holders

• Antilles Crossing,
• Barbados Light & Power,
• Ectel,
• Leucadia
  Leucadia National
  Leucadia National Corporation is a holding company that, through its subsidiaries, engages in mining & drilling services, telecommunications, healthcare services, manufacturing, banking and lending, real estate, and winery businesses with a market cap of about $8.0 billion as of June 15, 2011. ...
  
  ,
• Network Research

Participant countries

• Barbados (red),
• Grenada (green),
• Guadeloupe (blue),
• Martinique (blue),
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Saint Kitts and Nevis
  The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island nation in the West Indies. It is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas, in both area and population....
  
   (blue),
• Saint Lucia (green),
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
  
   (green),
• Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
  
  (grey),
• United States Virgin Islands (red),