The MONET is a 10,556km submarine cable system hooking up Boca Raton in Florida with Fortaleza and Santos in Brazil.

The MONET cable system consists of six fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 60Tbps (100Gbps x 100 wavelengths x 6 FPs).

The MONET consortium comprises of Google, Brazil’s Algar Telecom, Uruguay’s Antel, and Angola’s Angola Cables.

The MONET cable system lands at:

• Boca Raton CLS (Equinix MI3), Florida, USA
• Fortaleza CLS (owned by Angola Cables), Brazil.
• Santos CLS, Brazil. Google has 100% ownership interest for the Santos CLS through its subsidiary Google Infraestrutura Brasil Ltda.

The MONET cable system is supplied by SubCom.

The MONET cable system was ready for service on December 6, 2017.

The América Móvil Submarine Cable System (AMX-1) spans 17500km, connecting 7 countires, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, with 11 cable landing stations in Jacksonville and Miami, in the United States; Puerto Barrios in Guatemala; Barranquilla and Cartagena in Colombia; Fortaleza, Salvador de Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic; San Juan in Pureto Rico and Cancun in Mexico.

The AMX-1 cable system is wholly owned by América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (“América Móvil”) and its eight subsidiaries in the landing countries. The initial investment of the AMX-1 cable system costs about US$500million.

The AMX-1 cable system was launched for service in Dec 2013.

For more information, please refer to AMX-1 Cable System Overview.

BRUSA, a new submarine cable nearly 11,000 km in length linking Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza (Brazil) with San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Virginia Beach (USA), consists of 8 fiber pairs, with initial design capacity of 135 x 100 Gbps per fiber pair and ROADM technology. 

BRUSA is a private cable built and operated by Telefónica. The BRUSA cable system was launched for commercial service in Auguest  2018.

The BRUSA cable systems and the MAREA cable system jointly built by Facebook, Microsoft and Telxius are both landed at Virginia Beach cable landing station and  extended the backhaul capacity into Equinix DC2 and other data centers.

The Fiber Optic Austral (FOA) is the southernmost submarine cable in the world, connecting Las Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes in southern Chile.

The FOA cable system has a design capacity of 16 Tb/s and a length of 2,800 kilometers. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

The FOA cable system is owned and operated by CTR (Comunicación y Telefonía Rural S.A.), and supplied by Huawei Marine.

ARBR is a 4-fiber pair, 48Tbps, direct POP-to-POP subsea cable system Buenos Aires (Argentina), and São Paulo (Brazil). With an interconnection with Seabras-1, ARBR enables the newest and most direct route between Argentina and the U.S.

It was reported earlier that ARBR to be deployed with C+L band technology. But such solution should be given up in the ARBR cable system. 

With Seaborn and The Werthein Group as owners, ARBR will be Argentina’s first and only transoceanic cable for Argentina that is not controlled by a large incumbent telecom company.

Construction is scheduled to commence in 2020.

The Curie submarine cable system is a four-fibre-pair and 10,500km cable connecting Los Angeles, California, and Valparaiso, Chile, with a branching unit to Panama City, Panama.

The Curie cable system is designed with 18Tbps per fiber pair and a total system design capacity of 72 Tbps.

Named after physicist and chemist Marie Curie, the Curie cable system will make Google the first major non-telecom company to build a private intercontinental cable. Google claims it will be the first new cable to land in Chile in almost 20 years, and will become the largest single data pipe connecting the country.

In the US, Curie cable terminates at Equinix LA4 data center and cable landing station, where hosts another submarine cable invested by Google, PLCN.

In Chile, Curie cable lands at CenturyLink Cable Landing Station at Subida Leopoldo Carvallo 350, Valparaíso, and connects to Quilicura Google Data Center in Santiago, Chile. 

In Panama, Sparkle lands the cable at its Panama Digital Gateway, the first green data center in Panama, as Sparkle acquires one fiber pair on the Curie cable system.

The Curie cable system is supplied by TE SubCom. The Curie cable system was ready for service on November 15, 2019.

GlobeNet submarine cable system spans 23,500 km serving North and South America with ring protection.

GlobeNet cable system lands at the following Cable Landing Stations (CLSs):

• Barranquilla, Colombia
• Boca Raton, Florida, USA
• Fortaleza, Brazil
• Maiquetía, Venezuela
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• St David’s, Bermuda
• Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA

GlobeNet cable system offers direct low latency services in the following routes:

• New York to São Paulo <108ms
• New York to Rio de Janeiro <101ms
• New York to Bogota <78ms
• Miami to São Paulo <113ms
• Miami to Rio de Janeiro <106ms

GlobeNet cable system was luanched for service in 2001.

GlobeNet is a portfolio company of BTG Pactual Infrastructure Fund II.

Malbec is a new 2,500 km submarine cable that links the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and will have a branching unit to reach Porto Alegre, Brazil.

By connecting Argentina to GlobeNet’s network in Brazil, the new infrastructure will provide seamless connectivity between the Southern Cone of South America and the United States. When completed, it will be the first new submarine cable route to reach the Argentinian coast since 2001.

The Malbec cable system is co-owned by GlobeNet and Facebook, and it will be operated by GlobeNet. "Malbec" is named after the renowned Argentinian wine.

The Malbec cable system has been put into service as of June 1, 2021.

Kanawa cable system is a 1,746-kilometer cable linking Kourou in French Guiana and Schœlcher in Martinique, with two fiber pairs and 100*100 Gbps DWDM technology, delivering up to 10 Tbps capacity per fiber pair.

Kanawa means “large canoe” in the language of the native Kalina who once populated the West Indies. 

Kanawa cable system increases in traffic and diversify the connection points to enable a better quality of service between French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Kanawa cab;e system interconnects with the existing ECFS (East Caribbean Fiber System) to offer a direct link between French Guiana and the American continent.

Kanawa cable system is built, owned and operated by Orange, supplied by ASN, with an total investment of €35 million.

Kanawa cable system was ready for service in January 2019.

Tannat cable system is a 2000km subsea cable connecting Uruguay (Maldonado), Brazil (Santos) and Argentina (Las Toninas).

The Tannat cable consists of 6 fiber pairs, with an initial estimated design capacity of 90 Tbps, supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.

The Tannat consortium comprises Antel Uruguay, Google.

At Santos cable landing station, the Tannat cable system can interconnect with the Monet cable system to Boca Raton in the US and the Junior cable system to Rio de Janeiro.

Telxius has acquired fiber pairs in Tannat and Junior cable systems, and interconnects Junior with Brusa at  Rio de Janeiro CLS to establish a main connectivity route between the U.S. and key hubs in South America as a continuation of Brusa (Virginia Beach – Rio de Janeiro) and Junior (Rio de Janeiro – Santos).

The segment connecting Santos, Brazil, to Maldonado, Uruguay has been operational since mid-2018. 

Google and Antel announced in July 2019 to extended Tannat cable system to the nearby coastal city of Las Toninas in the Buenos Aires province, and the project was completed in December 2020.

Junior is a 390 km subsea cable connecting Rio de Janeiro to Santos in Brazil, ready for service in 2018.

Junior cable is technically Google’s first private owned subsea cable, as a domestic subsea cable in Brazil. Google has invested in other private international subsea cables, including Curie, Dunant, Equiano, etc.

At Santos cable landing station, Junior, Tannat and Monet cable systems interconnect seamlessly, to form key infrastructure of Google could platform connecting the US, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina along the coast of Atlantic. 

Telxius has acquired fiber pairs on Tannat and Junior cable systems, and interconnects Junior with Brusa at Rio de Janeiro CLS to establish a main connectivity route between the U.S. and key hubs in South America with Brusa (Virginia Beach – Rio de Janeiro) + Junior (Rio de Janeiro – Santos) + Tannat (Santos- Las Toninas, Argentina).

The South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC) is a 7,300 km new undersea cable in the Pacific coast of Latin America, connecting Puerto San José (Guatemala) to Valparaíso (Chile), with additional landing points in Salinas (Ecuador), Lurín (Peru) and Arica (Chile). 

The SPSC cable system is jointly built by Telxius and Claro (América Móvil). 

Telxius has its own commercial name of the South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC), called "Mistral".

The South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC) system consists of 6 fiber pairs and has a potential system capacity of 132 Tbps.

The Pacific cable system is the first undersea cable since 2001 to connect Puerto San José (Guatemala) with Valparaíso (Chile)

The Pacific cable system was ready for service on August 10, 2021.

The Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC) cable system is a 4,600 miles (7,500 km) of submarine cable. The MAC cable system consists of two optical fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 1.3 Tbps.

The MAC cable lands at:

• Brookhaven Cable Landing Station, NY;
• Hollywood, FL; and
• St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands.

The MAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in June 2000.

The MAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Pan-American Crossing (PAC), South American Crossing (SAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The Pan-American Crossing (PAC) submarine cable network spans more than 6,000 route miles (10,000 km), connecting the United States to Mexico, Central America, and South America. The PAC cable system comprises a self-healing ring (two fiber pairs) and WDM technology, with an intial design capacity of 20Gbps.

The PAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in March 2000.

The PAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Mid-American Crossing (MAC), South American Crossing (SAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The PAC cable lands at:

• Grover Beach, California, United States
• Tijuana, Mexico
• Mazatlán, Mexico
• Unqui, Costa Rica
• Fort Amador, Panama
  
  
  

The South American Crossing (SAC) cable system includes undersea and terrestrial fiber optic ring network of projectapproximately 12,000 route miles (20,000 km).

The SAC cable system forms a four-fiber pair ring using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology.

The SAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in September 2000.

The subsea portions of the SAC cable system lands at:

• Las Toninas (Argentina),
• Fortaleza (Brazil),
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil),
• Santos (Brazil),
• St. Croix (US Virgin Islands),
• Puerto Viejo, Venezuela
• Colon, Panama
• Fort Amador (Panama)
• Buenaventura (Colombia)
• Lurin (Peru),
• Valparaiso (Chile)

In 2015, Level 3 added an extension to the SAC cable system with a new branch to a cable station at Punta Bazan in Buenaventura on Colombia's Pacific coast near Cali. The new SAC Colombia spur has a design capacity of 4.5 Tbps and initial capacity of 400 Gbps.

Terrestrial segments of the SAC cable system connect to most major South American cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Cali, and Bogota. The SAC ring network completes on its southern-most end by a terrestrial link across the Andes between Las Toninas and Valparaiso.

The SAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Mid-American Crossing (MAC), Pan-American Crossing (PAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The AMERICAS-II Cable System (AMERICAS-II) is a 8,373 km submarine cable from USA to Brazil. The AMERICAS-II cable system was ready for service in August 2000.

The Americas-II consourtium comprises:

• AT&T,
• Level 3,
• Verizon,
• Sprint,
• Cable & Wireless Communications,
• Columbus Networks,
• Embratel,
• CANTV,
• Centennial of Puerto Rico,
• Corporacion Nacional de Telecommunicaciones,
• Telecom Argentina,
• Orange,
• Portugal Telecom,
• Telecom Italia Sparkle,
• Tata Communications.

The Americas-II cable system has 9 cable landing points and terminal stations (Segment T) at:

• T9: Hollywood, Florida, United States
• T8: Miramar, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• T7: Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
• T6: Le Lamentin, Martinique
• T5: Willemstad, Curaçao
• T4: Camuri, Venezuela
• T3: Chaguaramas, Trinidad
• T2: Cayenne, French Guiana
• T1: Fortaleza, Brazil

The Americas-II cable system coomprises 13 submarine segments:

• The trunk — segments S1, S3, S5, S9, S11, S12, and S13 — consists of four fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.
• The branches — segments S2, S4, S6, S7, S8, and S10 — consist of two fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.

The AMERICAS-II cable system consists of three interconnected rings (North, South, and West Systems), each operating at 2.5Gbps per wavelength collapsed ring configurations, initially in separate collapsed ring configurations, and a dedicated link between Curacao and Venezue not operating in a collapsed ring configuration.

Each fiber pair in each of the three rings has a capacity of thirty-two 155Mbps Basic System Modules (BSM), with each BSM containing 63 Minimum Investment Units (MIUs) and equipped at the outset for a capacity of 1008 MIUs.

The North System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with ten wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 20,160 MIUs for operation and 20,160 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Hollywood, Florida, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Hollywood, Florida.

The South System capacity supports the South Ring System and the Southwest System. The South Ring System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with eight wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 16,128 MIUs for operation and 16,128 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Fortaleza, Brazil, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, the Branch cable stations or an appropriate share of those cable stations, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs.

The West System contains four fiber pairs interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Puerto Rico, with only two fiber pairs initially equipped with four wavelengths each, in a bi-directional collapsed ring configuration, resulting in a total capacity of 4,032 MIUs for operation and 4,032 MIUs for protection (including the cable station at Puerto Rico), an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Miramar, Puerto Rico.

MAYA-1 is a 4400km submarine cable system connecting the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, from Hollywood, Florida on the southern tip of the United States to Tolu, Colombia on the northern tip of South America.

The MAYA-1 cable system was ready for service in October, 2000.

Utilizing Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and Direct Wave Access (DWA) with Erbium-Doped-Fiber-Amplifier (EDFA) technology, the MAYA-1 cable system has a system design ring capacity of 50Gbps of SDH capacity and 1910Gbps of DWA capacity after the upgrade in 2017.

The MAYA-1 consortium comprises: 

• AT&T,
• Sprint,
• Verizon Business,
• Tata Communications,
• Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC),
• Hondutel, 
• CANTV,
• Telefonica,
• BT,
• Orbitel, 
• MarcaTel,
• RSL Telecom (Panama)
• etc.

The MAYA-1 cable system consists of two segments (S and T) and various subsegments. Segment S includes the whole of the submarine cable and associated equipment. Segment T includes all of the cable stations and related equipment.

The MAYA-1 cable system deploys an interconnected collapsed ring configuration that contains two fiber pairs with five branching units connecting to the landing points.

Segment S consists of two fiber optic pairs initially operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength in one interconnected collapsed ring configuration. The initial design capacity of each fiber pair is equivalent to 48 Basic System Modules (BSMs), with a maximum upgrade capacity equivalent to 128 BSMs.  The MAYA-1 cable system has been upgraded to support a system design ring capacity of 50G of SDH Capacity and 1910G of DWA Capacity.

The MAYA-1 cable system has seven terminal stations and segments T:

• T1: Hollywood, FL, United States
• T2: Cancún, Mexico
• T3: Puerto Cortes, Honduras
• T4: Half Moon Bay, Cayman Islands
• T5: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
• T6: Maria Chiquita, Panama
• T7: Tolu, Colombia

The Americas Region Caribbean Optical-Ring System (ARCOS-1) is a 8,700 km submarine cable system connecting 24 landing points in 15 countries, including the United States, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.

The ARCOS-1 Consortium comprises ARCOS-1 USA, Inc and its wholly-owned direct subsidiary A.SurNet, Inc, and eighteen (18) international carriers, including:

1. Axtel S.A.B. de C.V. [Mexico]
2. United Telecommunications Services, N.V. [Curacao]
3. Alestra Comunicacion SRL de CV [Mexico]
4. The Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited [The Bahamas]
5. Belize Telemedia Limited [Belize]
6. Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela [Venezuela]
7. Compañía Dominicana de Telefonos [Dominican Republic]
8. Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones Sociedad Anonima [Nicaragua]
9. Empresa Hondureña de Telecomunicaciones [Honduras]
10. Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad [Costa Rica]
11. Level 3 Colombia S.A. [Colombia]
12. Internexa S.A.E.S.P. [Colombia]
13. Verizon Business [USA]
14. IC Investment Management, LLP [Colombia]
15. Telecarrier, S.A. [Panama]
16. Global Interlink [Bermuda]
17. Tricom, S.A. [Dominican Republic]
18. PREPA International Wholesale Transport, Inc. [Puerto Rico]

ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet and their affiliates hold 96% of the voting and ownership interests in the ARCOS-1 cable system, with the remaining ownership held by 18 international carriers, each with nominal ownership interests.

A.SurNet owns and operates the ARCOS-1 cable landing station in North Miami Beach, Florida.

After various acquisitions and transfers, ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet as well as the cable landing station in North Miami Beach and the majority of the ARCOS-1 cable system are now controlled by Liberty Latin America Ltd., a Bermuda company.

The ARCOS-1 cable system has twelve (12) fiber pairs on repeaterless segments and three (3) fiber pairs on repeatered segments, and a current end of life capacity of 8.4 Tbps.

The ARCOS-1 Cable Landing Station includes:

1. North Miami Beach, Florida, Estados Unidos
2. Cancún, México
3. Tulum, México
4. Ladyville, Belice
5. Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
6. Puerto Cortés, Honduras
7. Trujillo, Honduras
8. Puerto Lempira, Honduras
9. Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
10. Bluefields, Nicaragua
11. Puerto Limón, Costa Rica
12. María Chiquita, Panamá
13. Ustupu, Panamá
14. Cartagena, Colombia
15. Riohacha, Colombia
16. Punto Fijo, Venezuela
17. Willemstad, Curazao
18. San Juan, Puerto Rico
19. Punta Cana, República Dominicana
20. Puerto Plata, República Dominicana
21. Providenciales, Islas Turcas y Caicos
22. Isla de Crooked, Bahamas
23. Cat Island, Bahamas
24. Nassau, Bahamas

ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension 

A U.S. law prohibiting doing business with Cuba following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 prevented any U.S.-Cuban cable building. Finally in 2016, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped the last legal restrictions for a direct U.S.-Cuba cable. 

In 2018, ARCOS-1 USA filed the FCC an application to add a branch to Cuba and a cable landing station in Cojimar, Cuba (ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension). The cable landing will be accomplished by creating a branch from an existing branching unit of the ARCOS-1 Cable that lies approximately fifty-six (56) kilometers off the coast of Cuba to a beach manhole (“BMH”) in Cojimar, Cuba, located at N23˚10’ 1.55’’, 82˚18’ 54.58’’W. The new branch shall be designated as “Segment 26” of the ARCOS-1 Cable. The ARCOS-1 Cable will then extend through a cable land route to an existing cable landing station (“CLS”) in Cojimar, Cuba (the coordinates of the property are: Nlocated at N23˚9’ 44.98’’，82˚18’ 45.97’’W. The ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension will consist of two fiber pairs and will have an initial capacity of 100Gbps and planned capacity of 1.6 Tbps. 

ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet and their affiliates will own 96% of the capacity on the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension, with the remaining four percent of the capacity to be offered to the 18 ARCOS-1 consortium members corresponding to the percentage commensurate with their ownership interests in the cable system. Columbus Networks Limited (CNL) or a wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary of CNL will be the landing party in Cojimar, Cuba. The cable landing station in Cuba and the duct (cable land route) from the beach manhole to the Cojimar, Cuba cable landing station is owned by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA), the incumbent, state-owned telecommunications provider in Cuba. The physical cable inside the duct will be owned by CNL or an affiliate of CNL. ETECSA will provide the Cuban cable landing station with updated telecommunications equipment to operate SEGMENT 26, and ETECSA will acquire an indefeasible right of use (IRU) on some capacity on SEGMENT 26 from CNL. Neither CNL nor its subsidiaries are, or will become, a licensed telecommunications carrier in Cuba. 

If approved, the ARCOS-1 would have allowed for the first commerical fiber optic cable to directly connect the U.S. and Cuba.  There are an existing cable between Florida and the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (the GTMO-1 cable system), and a cable from Guantanamo Bay to Puerto Rico (the GTMO-PR cable system).

Unfortunately, Team Telecom recommended in November 2022 that the FCC deny the application for license for the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension. 

The Guantanamo Bay to Dania Beach Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System (GTMO-1) is approximately 1530km (950miles), connecting the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Facilities at Miami FL and U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO), in order to supply high bandwidth to Department of Defense (DoD) activities at GTMO, and improve long-haul communications between the continental U.S. and GTMO.

According to the U.S. Federal Register, The GTMO-1 cable system involves two existing, shore-based U.S. naval facilities where the GTMO SFOC will be landed end-to-end. On the continental U.S. end, the cable will be landed at the U.S. Navy's South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF) at Dania Beach, Florida; from there, the GTMO-1 cable system spans the entirety of Florida's Territorial Waters (3 nautical miles (nm)), extending through the U.S. Territorial Sea (12 nm) and Contiguous Zone (24 nm), with the majority of the cable system passing through a combination of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the Bahamian EEZ, and the Cuban EEZ to the nearshore landing at the American Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.

The GTMO-1 cable system is owned and operated by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The DISA is a Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency under the direction, authority and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.

The DISA leases commercial dark fiber to facilitate the terrestrial connection between SFOMF and the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Americas in Miami, Florida to provide DISN node-to-node connection.

In May 2014, the US DoD awarded Xtera Communications the contract to build the GTMO-1 cable system.  Xtera Communicationst announced in June 2014 that it won the $31,220,394 contract for the 950-mile submarine cable system without ever mentioning Guantánamo. Xtera subsequently was awarded a $3.7 million contract to build the ground stations for the Guantánamo Bay to Dania Beach Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System, with a cost of approximately $35 million. Later in August 2017, Xtera was awarded by the DoD a contract of approxiamately US$43million to build a new submarine cable connecting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and  Puerto Rico, i.e., the GTMO-PR cable system.

The GTMO-1 cable system was ready for service in February 2016. 

Currently, GTMO-1 cable system is the first submarine cable directly connecting the United States and Cuba, but it is not served for commerical use.

The Guantanamo Bay to Punta Salinas, Toa Baja, Puerto Rico Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System (GTMO-PR) is approximately 1,400 kilometers (756 nautical miles), connecting the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Facilities at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO) and  Ft. Buchanan, Puerto Rico, in order to supply high bandwidth to Department of Defense (DoD) activities at GTMO, and improve long-haul communications between the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and GTMO.

According to the U.S. Federal Register, The GTMO-PR cable system connects the Defense Information System Network (DISN) node located offshore at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba to the DISN node located in Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. The GTMO-PR cable land into a pre-laid shore end stub cable (installed in 2016 as part of GMTO-1 cable project) ending 19 kilometers (10.26 nautical miles) offshore of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba to the DISN node located in Fort Buchanan, Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The landing location for Puerto Rico is the Puerto Rico Air National Guard (PRANG) Radar installation located in Punta Salinas, Toa Baja through a horizontally directional drilled (HDD) pipe. For the subsequent connection to the Army Reserves Base, Fort Buchanan in Bayamon.

The GTMO-PR cable system is owned and operated by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The DISA is a Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency under the direction, authority and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.

The DISA leases local circuit services to facilitate the terrestrial connection to the Army Reserves Base, Fort Buchanan in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The DISA also leases commercial dark fiber to facilitate the terrestrial connection between the GTMO-1 cable landing station and the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Americas in Miami, Florida. With GTMO-1 and GTMO-PR cable systems, DISN forms node-to-node connection between the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and GTMO.

In August 2017, Xtera was awarded by the DoD a contract of approxiamately US$43million to build the GTMO-PR cable system. Earlier in May 2014, the US DoD awarded Xtera the contract to build the GTMO-1 cable system.

The GTMO-PR cable system was ready for service in September 2019.

The GTMO-PR cable system is not served for commerical use. 

The Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS) is a 6000km submarine cable connecting Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Aruba, Curacao, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

The PCCS consortium comprises:

• Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W Networks, a Liberty Latin America company)
• Setar,
• Cable Andino (Telconet),
• Telxius, and
• United Telecommunication Services (acquired by Liberty Latin America in 2019)

The PCCS has eight landing stations, including:

• Jacksonville, Florida, USA,
• Tortola, the British Virgin Island,
• San Juan, Puerto Rico,
• Hudishibana, Aruba,
• Cartagena, Colombia,
• Maria Chiquita, Panama,
• Balboa, Panama, and
• Manta, Ecuador.

The PCCS cable system consists of 9 segments, with 2 or 3 fiber pairs in most of the segments, and 8 fiber pairs in the segment between Tortola, BVI and Jacksonville, Florida. 

The PCCS cable system was initially designed with 8 fiber pair x 100 Gps x 100 wavelength DWDM technology, for the system capacity of 80 Tbps.

The PCCS cable system was supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN), ready for service on July 31, 2015.

The Colombia-Florida Subsea Fiber (CFX-1) is a 2400km submarine cable connecting the United States, Columbia, and Jamaica.

The CFX-1 cable system has cable landing stations in:

• Boca Raton, Florida,
• Cartagena, Colombia,
• Morant Bay, Jamaica
• Copa Club, Jamaica

The CFX-1 cable system consists of one segment with repeaters connecting Cartagena and Boca Raton, and a branch without repeaters connecting to Morant Bay, and a second landing in Copa Club, Jamaica

The CFX-1 cable system contains 2 fiber pairs on its trunk connecting Cartagena and Boca Raton and branch to Morant Bay, and 12 fiber pairs on repeaterless segment between Morant Bay and Copa Club.

Currently, the CFX-1 has a system capacity up to 12Tbps.

The CFX-1 cable system was a private cable owned and operated by Columbus Networks, currently owned by Liberty Latin America (Liberty Latam).

The CFX-1 cable system was supplied by Tyco (now SubCom), ready for service in August 2008.

The Alternativa Bolivariana para los Pueblos de nuestra América (ALBA-1) is a 1860 km submarine cable linking Cuba, Jamaica and Venezuela.

The ALBA-1 cable system is the first subsea cable connecting Cuba to the outside world. 

The ALBA-1 cable project was first announced in January 2007, and completed in August 2012, activated with traffic in January 2013.

The ALBA-1 cable system is owned and operated by Venezuelan/Cuban joint venture Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe (TGC). TGC is 60% owned by state-run Telecom Venezuela with the remainder held by Cuba’s Telco Transbit.

The ALBA-1 cable lands at:

• Siboney beach, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
• La Guaira, Caracas, Venezuela
• Ocho Rios,  Jamaica

The ALBA-1 cable system has a design capacity of 5.12 Tbps.

Alcatel-Lucent, through its Chinese subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, was awarded the contract to provide turn-key solution for the construction of the ALBA-1 cable system, with a final cost of US$70 million. The initial cost estimate, from October 2006, was $55 million: $35 million for the undersea portion and $20 million to extend the cable to the Cuban and Venezuelan networks in Havana and Caracas.

The ALBA-1 cable system is currenlty the only one commerical international cable system connecting Cuba to the world. Beside, there are GTMO-1 and  GTMO-PR submarine cable systems landing at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not available for commercial use. And the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension is still pending.

The South America-1 Cable Network (SAm-1) is a nearly 25,000 km subsea fiber-optic cable ring surrounding Latin America, including 22,000 km of submarine cable and 3,000 km of terrestrial links across Argentina, Chile and Guatemala.

The SAm-1 cable system is privately owned and operated by Telxius.

The SAm-1 cable system consists of four fiber pairs, initially designed with a self-healing ring architecture, capable of carrying 48x10 Gbps each and a system capacity of 1.92 Tbps. The SAm-1 was ready for service in March 2001.

The SAm-1 cable system has been upgraded to support 100Gbps wavelength, with a system capacity of 20Tbps since 2012.

The SAm-1 has the following cable landing stations:

• Boca Raton, Florida, United States
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Barranquilla, Colombia
• Fortaleza, Brazil
• Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
• Las Toninas, Argentina
• Valparaíso, Chile
• Arica, Chile
• Lurín District, Peru
• Máncora, Perur
• Manta, Ecuador
• Puerto San José, Guatemala
• Puerto Barrios, Guatemala

Caribbean Express (CX) is a new build submarine cable system that is being developed by Ocean Networks. 

The Caribbean Express (CX) cable system will connect Points of Presence between West Palm Beach (Florida) and Balboa (Panama) with branch connections to Mexico and Columbia. In addition, the CX cable system will have future connectivity to Cuba, Grand Cayman, Guatemala, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The CX system will utilize the latest Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technology and have 18 fiber pairs. 

This strategic system will fill a requirement for the emerging markets of Central America by providing low latency connectivity to the NAP of Americas in Miami (Florida) and the Jacksonville (Florida) NAP. The CX cable system will be the only system in the Caribbean region that can offer full fiber pairs to the market.

The CX cable system is scheduled ready for service in Q1 2024. 

The Firmina subsea cable spans 14,517 kilometers (9,020 miles), connecting the East Coast of the United States to Las Toninas, Argentina, with additional landings in Praia Grande, Brazil, and Punta del Este, Uruguay. The Firmina subsea cable is the first U.S. system with a direct landing in Uruguay and one of the few subsea cables connecting the United States with Argentina – beyond GlobeNet (via Malbec), SAm-1, and SAC.

The Firmina cable is named after Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825 - 1917), a Brazilian abolitionist and author whose 1859 novel, Úrsula, depicted life for Afro-Brazilians under slavery. A mixed-race woman and intellectual, Firmina is considered Brazil’s first novelist. 

The Firmina cable system is privately owned and invested by Google through its subsidiary GU Holdings Inc, being the landing party and contracted with DC BLOX, Telxius, ANTEL and Lumen as landing service providers for the following Cable Landing Stations:

• Myrtle Beach CLS: a new cable landing station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, owned by DC BLOX.
• Praia Grande CLS: an existing cable landing station in the city of Santos, Brazil, owned by Telxius.
• Punta del Este CLS: a new cable landing station in Punta del Este, Uruguay, owned by ANTEL (Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones), a state-owned operator in Uruguay. In December 2022, the President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou formally approved Google to land and operate the Firmina submarine cable in the country, following an inspection of almost two years.
• Las Toninas CLS: an existing cable landing station in Las Toninas, Argentina, owned by Lumen Technologies through its subsidiary CenturyLink Argentina S.A.  Las Toninas is located about 160 miles south of Buenos Aires.

The Firmina cable system consists of the following segments:

• Main Trunk: from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Las Toninas, Argentina, with 16 fiber pairs and a cable length of 13,413 kilometers (8,334 miles ).
• Brazil Branch: from a branching unit  to Praia Grande, Brazil (state of São Paulo), with 24 fiber pairs and a cable length of 580 kilometers (360 miles).
• Uruguay Branch: from a branching unit to Punta del Este, Uruguay, with 12 fiber pairs and a cable length of 524 kilometers (326 miles).
• Two Stubbed Branches:
  • one points towards Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic and located on the high seas, with 12 fiber pairs
  • the other points towards Fortaleza, Brazil and located in Brazil’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with 16 fiber pairs

The Firmina cable system will have a total system capacity of 240Tbps for its 16-FP main trunk, or 15 Tbps per fiber pair.

SubCom is the supplier of Firmina cable project.

The Firmina cable system is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2023.

Deep Blue One is a 2,000 km cable connecting French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, with the opportunity to connect offshore oil and gas rigs on the back of the industry boom in the Caribbean and Latin America region. The French Guiana leg to Trinidad is 1,600 km long. 

Deep Blue One has five branching units, with two to eight fibre pairs in each segment, offering a minimum of 12Tbps capacity per fibre pair.

Deep Blue One cable is routed to be able to connect the many offshore oil and gas rigs and the build will include new cable landings in Trinidad, Tobago – with a new route between Trinidad and Tobago – and Suriname.

Digicel, a leading operator in the Caribbean and headquartered in Jamaica, and Orange partner on the Deep Blue One.

Orange acts as landing party in Cayenne for the French Guiana branch and operates the Cable landing station on behalf of Digicel while its subsidiary Orange Marine will be in charge of laying the cable. And Deep Blue One will complement Orange existing fully owned 1746 km long Kanawa cable, which was commissioned early 2019 as well as Orange’s existing networks based on Americas-2, ECFS, CBUS. This new system offers a secure and adaptive solution in the region to respond to increasing broadband customer requirements. 

Deep Blue One cable project is expected to complete in early 2024, with cable installation beginning in mid-2023.

The Carnival Submarine Network-1 (CSN-1) is a 4,500 km submarine cable connecting Ecuador, Panama, Colombia and the Florida West coast in the USA, plus potentially other countries within Central and South America.

CSN-1 is developed by Telconet, the Ecuador-based infrastructure and telecom operator.

Telconet selects Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to construct CSN-1, with supply contract in force (CIF) in March 2022.

CSN-1 will utilize ASN’s field proven, state of the art, high fiber count, SDM submarine cable technology. The cable will adhere to the industry’s Open Cable architecture, further supporting its goal to be carrier neutral and provide open access in each of the CSN-1 landing stations.

The Arimao submarine cable system is a 2500km subsea cable to connect Cuba and Martinique.

The Arimao submarine cable system is deployed by ETECSA, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly in Cuba, and ORANGE, through its subsidiary Orange Marine, supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).

ETECSA and Orange have signed an agreement on the Arimao project in December 2022. And the system is expected to be ready for service by 2023. 

Upon completion, the Arimao submarine cable system will provide Cuba with a new route for international services, geographically diversifying the current connectivity. 

Prior to the Arimao project, ETECSA tried to land ARCOS-1 cable system in Cojimar, Cuba, but it was blocked by the United States in November 2022.

There is now only one international subsea cable connection to Cuba, the ALBA-1 cable system connecting Venezuela and Jamaica with Cuba.