Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks and Ocean Networks, a developer of submarine cable systems, will build a 14,200 km submarine cable system linking Hawaii to South America.
The South America Pacific Link (SAPL) system will connect Oahu in Hawaii, Balboa in Panama and Santiago in Chile, providing additional capacity to meet the bandwidth demand around the Pacific Rim, as well as enhance the role of digital connectivity in regional economic development.
SAPL will also provide a diverse route to the US West Coast and a low latency route from Central and South America to the Asia-Pacific region, in particular to Australia and New Zealand. The 100 Gbit/s SAPL system will have a capacity of 10 terabits-per-second on each of its three fiber pairs.
The system is also designed for further connectivity via branching units to Manta in Ecuador, Lima in Peru, Arica in Chile and the big island of Hawaii.
Scott J. Schwertfager, CEO at Ocean Networks, said: “This project is significant as the SAPL system will fulfill a long-standing need of the markets of Central and South America for connectivity to the Asia Pacific region by interconnecting with existing and planned submarine cable systems.”
Philippe Dumont, president of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, said: “Connecting to the Hawaii hub will boost access to the worldwide infrastructure, opening up traffic diversity to increase access and service reliability as demand from consumers and businesses alike grows rapidly.”
