Data Centres & Networks

Will Argentina diversify its submarine cable entry points?

Will Argentina diversify its submarine cable entry points?

The province of Chubut in southern Argentina is reported to be seeking to attract investment in data centres and develop a second submarine fibre optic landing point in the country, citing significant competitive advantages compared to other provinces.

The area’s advantages apparently include availability of energy resources, a strategic location on the South Atlantic, integration with the bi-oceanic fibre optic corridor, and a free trade zone.

Chubut hopes that by becoming the second submarine cable landing point in the country it can diversify the entry points for international data traffic and expand national connectivity capacity.

The BNamericas website explains that Chubut is located about 1,400 kilometres south of the coast of Las Toninas, where all the submarine cables that reach Argentina currently converge. Indeed, more cables are expected to follow, notably the overland Paso Pehuenche corridor, a plan led by the Chilean state-run infrastructure fund Desarrollo País to lay a cross-border connection that will link the Pacific with the Atlantic.

Chubut – which stretches about 500 kilometre from the Atlantic to the Andes mountain range on the border with Chile – is said to be seeking to create its own bioceanic connection route linking the Atlantic and the Pacific. It’s early days yet, however, and its focus for now seems to be on getting funding for a new mooring station, for which it will seek multilateral financing.

A number of provinces in Patagonia, a region in southern South America that spans parts of Argentina and Chile, are trying to gain interest from the data centre industry. However, at the moment, says the BNamericas website, Argentina has just 32MW of total installed capacity spread across 13 facilities.



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