Chilean cable plans change

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Optical & Fixed Networks; 27 July 2020; 5097 views

According to the New Zealand press a new internet cable connecting New Zealand, Chile and Australia may be on the way, but plans to include China seem to have been abandoned.

Apparently the Chilean press has reported that the Chilean government plans to build a subsea cable linking Valparaiso in Chile, Sydney and New Zealand. This is significant because the original proposal was for a cable between Chile and China.

Remi Galasso, founder of Auckland firm Hawaiki cable, has apparently been in discussions with Chilean telecommunications agency SubTel about the idea of laying the cable south of New Zealand. He reportedly hopes to invest in a spur to New Zealand city Invercargill and Antarctica.

If Invercargill, a city in the far south of the country, has a realistic chance of being connected with a new fibre optic cable running between Sydney and Chile, this in turn would giving hopes of building a data centre industry in that region of New Zealand a huge boost.

Of course, the fact that plans to build a cable from Chile to China have been shelved may be welcomed by the New Zealand government as it no longer has to decide whether to give such a cable landing rights.

The Chilean press has apparently reported that the US had lobbied strongly against the China-Chile cable plan.