Chile and Google entered into an agreement on Wednesday to establish the first-ever submarine fiber optic cable to link South America, Asia, and Oceania by 2027.
“This cable fulfills a technical requirement and represents an investment in resilience, the diversification of digital routes, and the opening up of new opportunities for international collaboration,” Chile’s Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren stated during the signing ceremony in Santiago.
Chile currently connects to the US and other continents through an undersea cable. This initiative, known as the “Humboldt Project,” will provide a faster connection alternative.
The project is also poised to benefit Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
The plan involves constructing a 14,800-kilometer cable from Valparaiso, Chile, to Sydney, Australia, passing through French Polynesia.
“The idea is not only for Google to utilize this cable but also for other tech companies operating in Chile to use it,” Cristian Ramos, Alphabet, Google’s parent company’s director of telecommunications infrastructure for Latin America, stated.
The partnership was initially announced in January 2024. The Chile government indicated the cable would have a capacity of 144 terabytes per second and would last 25 years.
Chile’s Telecommunications Minister, Juan Carlos Munoz, stated the new cable would reduce the delay in sending and receiving signals, significantly impacting the field of telemedicine.
Google invested between $300 and $550 million (euros 250-480 million), according to local officials.
The Chilean government plans to contribute $25 million (€ 21 million) to the project.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/chile-google-sign-first-of-its-kind-deal-for-undersea-cable/a-72793864?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
