Spotlight: Panama's upcoming submarine cable and datacenter projects

With six submarine cables landing on its shores, Panama is arguably the most interconnected nation in Central America. And is set to be even more so.

At least two new systems connecting the country are underway: the Carnival Submarine-Network (CSN-1), which is due in 2025; and the Caribbean Expresses, scheduled to be ready for service in 2026.

These add to the existing South American Crossing (SAC), the Pan-American Crossing (PAC) and Maya 1, all cables launched in 2000.

There is also Arcos, launched in 2001; the Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS), activated in 2015; and Google’s Curie, which went live in 2020. Curie's Panama branch, however, is still to be activated.

Many of these systems arrive in Panama on one side – for example, the Pacific – cross the country through terrestrial backbones, and “leave” on the other.

That is the case of SAC, PAC, PCCS and the future CSN-1.

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CSN-1, in particular, is being pushed by Ecuadoran telco Telconet. When ready, CSN-1 will run 4,500km from Ecuador to Florida’s west coast, with landing points in Panama and Colombia.

Two other initiatives, the Panama Digital Gateway and Copernicus, are also expected to bolster connectivity in the Central American country.

PANAMA DIGITAL GATEWAY

Panama Digital Gateway comprises both a datacenter and a submarine integration system.

The project is being carried out by Telecom Italia’s infrastructure unit Sparkle and by Panamanian telco Trans Ocean Network. 

In 2021, Sparkle and Trans Ocean formed a JV for the construction of an open landing station and a datacenter in the country. Trans Ocean is currently responsible for receiving and "crossing" PCCS through Panama.

These novel datacenter and landing sites will connect to Sparkle’s own submarine networks, and are also projected to be the landing station and data processing structures for the future submarine systems looking for an entry in Central America, the companies say.

Located in Panama City, the datacenter is expected to offer 3,200m2 of colocation space, with over 600 racks and 5MW of power. The estimated power usage effectiveness (PUE) is projected at 1.4. Works are said to be in the final stages.

“Panama Digital Gateway consolidates and positions Panama as the digital hub of the region, strengthening the connectivity of our country, and becoming a strategic interconnection offer for OTTs, carriers and enterprises,” said Joaquín Victoria Díaz, general manager of Trans Ocean Network.

“We are very pleased to be participating in the construction and operation of this open hub in conjunction with a partner of experience and global scale such as Sparkle,” he added.

COPERNICUS

Copernicus, for its part, is the Earth observation initiative of the European Union’s space program. In Latin America, it will mean two datacenters – one of which will be in Panama.

Last month in Bogotá, the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) advanced with a bilateral digital alliance, announcing a series of initiatives. The budget for the alliance is 145mn euros (US$160mn).

From an infrastructure perspective, the digital alliance foresees two main actions. The first is the extension of the Bella cable. Bella, or Ellalink cable, officially went live in June 2021. 

Connected to Fortaleza, Brazil, it is the first direct high-capacity route between South America and Europe, through 6,000km of maritime networks. 

It is meant mostly to serve data exchange for Bella, a scientific cooperation project between Latin America and the EU. Bella stands for Building the Europe Link to Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is not yet clear what this expansion will be like; whether it will be terrestrial, underwater, just a capacity increase, or manpower-focused. 

The EU refers to it as an “extension of the digital infrastructure” to Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, which likely means physical ground networks.

The second EU-CELAC infrastructure initiative at play is the implementation of a “regional Copernicus strategy” in Latin America. This entails two Copernicus datacenters, one each in Panama and Chile. 

These datacenters would help to store and process global data from satellites and ground-based, airborne and seaborne measurement systems from the Earth observation initiative.

“Based on satellite and in situ observations, the Copernicus services deliver near-real-time data on a global level which can also be used for local and regional needs, to help us better understand our planet and sustainably manage the environment we live in,” the EU says on its website.

So far, however, there are no details regarding the construction, design or schedule for these two datacenters.

Nonetheless, they anticipate future demand for data connection in the region – and in Central America, for Panama in particular.

"Even in future projects, and there are several submarine cable projects, Panama is always there. You get cable coming from the Pacific and going to the Caribbean, in Central America, then north to Mexico. So it makes much more sense in terms of connectivity to have there a hub if you want to move a lot of traffic," Carmine Sorrentino, chief commercial and operating officer at Liberty Latin America’s C&W Networks and former head of the Panama Digital Gateway project, told BNamericas in this interview.