An action-packed year for submarine cable projects in Latin America and the Caribbean

The submarine cable market in Latin America saw plenty of action in 2022 with announcements of new investments and upgrades to systems.

The region is connected by about 70 submarine cables, some of which are nearing the end of their useful lives.

Latin America has several projects in the construction, design and engineering phases.

Two projects in Ecuador, Aurora and the Galapagos Cable System, are scheduled to come online in 2023.

The first will connect Florida in the US to Manta in Ecuador, with landing points in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, the Cayman Islands and Colombia.

The second will connect the mainland with the Galapagos Islands.

The start of operations of Google's second submarine cable, Firmina, which has already received approval from Argentina and Uruguay for its installation, is also expected.

The system will connect the east coast of the US with Las Toninas (Argentina), with landing points at Praia Grande (Brazil) and Punta del Este (Uruguay).

BNamericas reviews the latest news on investments in submarine cables in Latin America and the Caribbean.

GOLD DATA

Gold Data announced a US$150mn investment for the first cable system in the Gulf of Mexico that will connect Miami with the Mexican cities of Cancún, Querétaro and Mexico City.

The system will offer more than 250Tbps of capacity on 10 fiber pairs.

French company Orange will be in charge of carrying out the technical design and laying of the cable, together with Orange Marine and Alcatel Submarine Networks. Ciena will provide its GeoMesh Extreme SLTE technology and transportation technology.

Orange has also signed agreements to acquire fiber pairs in the submarine system.

The new infrastructure will reduce latency by up to 35%, according to Gold Data.

ARIMAO

In December, Cuban state telco Etecsa and Orange International Carriers announced the deployment of the Arimao submarine cable that will connect the island with Martinique.

The submarine cable is the second for Cuba, which is already connected to Venezuela and Jamaica through the Alba-1 system.

Etecsa did not provide investment figures or details of the works, but the new infrastructure is expected to be commercially available in 2023.

The news comes after the US Department of Justice recommended preventing a connection between Cuba and the United States through the Arcos-1 submarine cable for reasons of national security.

EXTENSIONS

Submarine cable operator Seaborn is reconsidering possible extensions and new sections for its Seabras-1 cable, which connects Brazil with the US.

Seabras-1 connects Praia Grande, on the São Paulo state coast, with New Jersey through a 10,500km route.

The company has changed its original plans and no longer foresees an extension to the Brazilian city of Recife.

Claro Costa Rica, meanwhile, invested US$500mn in the extension of the AMX-1 submarine cable to the country and the construction of an earth station in Limón.

The AMX-1 cable is 17,500km long and connects Colombia with Mexico, Guatemala, the US, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil and now Costa Rica. It has capacity of 85Tbps.

UPDATES

In October, Infinera completed two important contracts in Latin America. The company reported that it was selected by Angola Cables to upgrade the 6,500km submarine network connecting Miami with São Paulo with its 800G coherent solution.

In addition, Algar Telecom will use the ICE6 800G optical engine, GX series compact modular platform and Infinera's FlexILS open optical line system to modernize and scale its Monet cable system subsea infrastructure.

Monet connects Boca Raton in the US with the Brazilian cities of Fortaleza and Praia Grande.

A month earlier, C&W announced that it was installing Ciena's GeoMesh Extreme solution to upgrade its CFX-1 submarine cable networks connecting Colombia with the US and Jamaica, and EWC, linking the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands. The update will allow the infrastructure to go up to 400Gbps.

Ciena, meanwhile, was also selected by Uruguayan company Dedicado to upgrade its terrestrial and submarine infrastructure that connects the country with Argentina. The company will use the 6500 packet optical platform and will enable the first 600G to 800G high capacity network between Argentina and Uruguay.

Image: Orange