News
An inauguration ceremony, held at the cable’s northernmost landing station at Arica, the Chilean government hailed the cable as the next step in Chile’s digital transformation
Chile has now officially inaugurated the Prat submarine cable, a move which it hopes will help further develop the country as a regional connectivity hub.
The cable spans around 3,500km down the west coast of Chile from Arica, at the company’s most north-westerly point, down to Puerto Montt in the south.
First announced three years ago, the Prat system was designed to deliver 4 Tbps connections to 12 cities along the coast, helping prepare for not only the country’s ever-increasing data traffic, but also providing most robust connectivity during the event of natural disasters, like earthquakes and flooding.
“The cable Prat represents an infrastructure legacy for the country, and this year we had the opportunity to go even further from our expectations by being part of the Submarine Earthquake Observation Project, POST,” explained Fernando Gana, general manager of the Gtd. “They found in Chile the ideal place to study earthquakes of submarine origin. Thanks to the place where the Prat cable is deployed, they have the necessary infrastructure to test a new technology, with which they hope to develop, in the future, an early warning system that will benefit Chile and various countries around the world.”
The cable was brought into service in May 2020.
Chile is increasingly positioning itself as a major digital hub for Latin America and beyond, greatly increasing its infrastructure deployments in recent years, both terrestrial and subsea. Just last month, the Chilean government even announced that they were beginning to plan the world’s first submarine cable system to reach the Antarctic, helping to support global research efforts on the continent.
“We are taking the first step to create an Antarctic digital hub,” explained the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Francisco Moreno. “We aspire that the large volumes of scientific information that arise from the multiple and transcendental investigations that are carried out in this continent, such as climate change and biological evolution, circulate from Antarctica to the rest of the world through Chilean telecommunications networks.”
Speaking at the Prat inauguration, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt, said the Prat cable was just another step towards Chile’s development as a regional data transport hub.
“We are committed to making Chile the gateway to the region, connected with different capitals of the world and capable of occupying a relevant place in the digital community. In this sense, initiatives such as the Prat cable bring us closer to this goal thanks to the deployment of more high-capacity infrastructures, a factor that differentiates us and at the same time drives innovation in our country,” she explained. “Chile endorsed the transformation and accepted the challenge of becoming the Digital Hub of the region. I think we are on a very good path.”
What’s next for Chile and the submarine cable industry? Find out from the community at next year’s live Submarine Networks EMEA event
Also in the news:
Equinix starts African expansion with MainOne purchase
Samsung reshuffle sees consumer and mobile units merge
Meet the Asian telecom superstars! #ACA21
