Puerto Rico planning submarine telecom cable south of island

Puerto Rico is planning to bring a submarine telecommunications fiber optic cable to its southern coast to reinforce the island's connectivity against natural disasters such as last year's hurricane María, local officials were reported as saying by local media.

The project, with an estimated cost of US$130mn, will join Puerto Rico to an undersea cable between the US and Brazil and will provide telecommunications services if a natural disaster should hit the current connection of the country on its northern coast.

Governor Ricardo Roselló was quoted as saying that the new high-capacity cable "is a vital measure for preparedness. This project is a great advance not only in disaster preparedness, but also in Puerto Rico's ability to offer technology... and to keep transforming the island into a center for new business opportunity development."

The head of Puerto Rico's telecommunications authority, Sandra Torres, added that the cable will have an initial capacity of 13,000Gb/s.

Last year storms devastated the US territory, almost completely destroying its telecommunications and basic infrastructure. Since then, companies have been investing heavily in rebuilding their networks.

América Móvil announced this week that it expects to end the year having invested US$250mn in the island, while T-Mobile has also announced in September the deployment of extended-range LTE connectivity, laying the basis for the deployment of 5G.