The developer, owner and operator of a state-of-the-art subsea fibre-optic system providing connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the Americas has also announced that it will expand to additional landing points throughout the region.
The Phase 1 extension of the near 12,000km Deep Blue Cable system to Colombia and Panama will necessitate an adjustment to the project timeline. Earlier this month, Denis O’Brien backed Deep Blue Cable appointed APTelecom, a facilities-based consulting and service company, as its international sales partner.
Route survey activities for the pan-Caribbean undersea cable will commence in Q1 2018, with manufacturing and installation continuing through 2018 and into 2019. Meanwhile, in view of the recent extreme weather events in the region, Deep Blue Cable is continuing to consider the design of the system to mitigate any future environmental and connectivity concerns. The projected Ready for Service date of the Deep Blue subsea cable system is Q2 2020.
“With the planned extension of our subsea fibre-optic cable system to Colombia and Panama, Deep Blue underscores its commitment to the long-term solution of providing advanced subsea connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the Americas,” said Stephen Scott, CEO of Deep Blue Cable.
“The Deep Blue subsea cable network will have a profound impact not only on the communications ecosystem of the Caribbean, but also on the economic growth potential of an underserved region. Now more than ever, the Caribbean needs resilient communications infrastructure.”
The cable has initial landing points in 14 markets throughout the region, including the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Colombia, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands, with dual diverse landings in the U.S., which will include the first landing of a cable on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
The Deep Blue subsea cable network has up to 8 fibre pairs with an initial capacity of 6Tbps and ultimate capacity of approximately 20Tbps per fibre pair.
