The company already had extension to its submarine cable that took it to Cucuta on Colombia’s eastern border, providing diversity as other cables that serve the country, like Maya and Arcos, land on its north Caribbean coast. The company says it is the only international capacity provider that offers carriers a diverse route to and from Colombia by providing services via the eastern border. It has now extended its network from Cucuta to capital Bogota.
Said Globenet COO Erick Contag: “The Colombian market has been growing for some time and we felt it was time for us to step in. We have a small start-up team in Bogota. We meet all the major carriers at the border and can interconnect with them, and extending the network means we can extend our services, interconnect with smaller carriers and metro players and increase capillarity.”
Said Genaro Garcia Dominguez, CEO at Internexa, which already operates in Colombia: “At Internexa we are pleased to hear news of the entry of a new player, as a potential client which will help us transform a highly concentrated market like the Colombian into an open, dynamic market. This will eventually have a positive impact in the economic and social development of Colombia. The level of broadband penetration in the Colombian market is still low. Therefore, this is an attractive market for new players.”
Contag said that Globenet, a subsidiary of Brazilian operator Oi, wants to extend its presence elsewhere in south America, and is looking at other geographies it does not serve directly at present. Globenet’s submarine cable system spans more than 22,000km, connecting Brazil, Bermuda, Venezuela, the US and now Colombia. The existing network configuration has 360Gbps of lit capacity. The company intends to more than double its lit capacity by the end of 2011.
