Narayan AmmachchiMexican telecom giant América Móvil and Spanish company Telefónica have teamed up to build an ultra-speed submarine cable between Guatemala and Chile along the Pacific coast.
The 7,300 km-long cable will boost internet connectivity, serving the entire Pacific coast of South America.
The cable system will have five landing stations, in Puerto San José (Guatemala), Valparaiso (Chile), Salinas (Ecuador), Lurin (Peru), and Arica (Chile).
“It will have an initial estimated capacity of 108 Tbps, with six fiber pairs offering the lowest possible latency between Guatemala and Chile,” the carriers said in a joint statement.
Neither company has disclosed the financial details of the deal.
Telxius, the infrastructure subsidiary of Telefónica, says the five landing stations are already in place and undersea prospection works are currently under way.
“Not only will it allow us to deliver the latest technology and best latency to serve our partners and customers in key markets in Latin America, but we will also benefit from significant efficiencies working together with América Móvil in the deployment of this new cable,” said Guillermo Ansaldo, Telefónica’s chief global resources officer.
The news comes after Telefónica reached an agreement with América Móvil to sell off its telecom operations in Guatemala and El Salvador in January.
However, that deal has now run into a roadblock, with El Salvador’s competition authority arguing that the planned takeover does not meet anti-trust requirements.
América Móvil’s subsidiary Claro is a major carrier in El Salvador with more than 30% of market share.
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