Chile launches tender for CAF-backed Antarctic fiber cable

Chile launched a US$2.2mn tender backed by Latin American development bank CAF to produce a feasibility study to build a submarine fiber cable connecting with Antarctica.

CAF is already participating in the Humboldt Transoceanic Cable project to connect the country with Oceania and Asia as well as the country's Brecha Digital Cero 2022-2025 plan to connect unserved and underserved areas throughout Chile.

The tender announcement comes nearly one year after Chilean authorities inked an agreement with CAF on funding studies and nearly three years after the country first announced the Antarctic project.

It was November 2021 when infrastructure association Desarrollo País, Chilean telecoms regulator Subtel and far south Magallanes region announced an agreement to deploy a Chile mainland-Antarctica cable.

That agreement, as reported at the time, encompassed carrying out a market consultation process for the preparation of a technical, legal, economic and financial feasibility study.

CABLE 

The project is expected to benefit mostly research centers in Antarctica with reduced latency times. Antarctica currently has very limited connectivity through satellite solutions.

The cable will be approximately 1,000km long and run from Puerto Williams on the Beagle channel to Antarctica's King George Island.

According to Subtel, Chile's existing infrastructure in Puerto Williams, via the Fibra Óptica Austral (FOA), gives it a clear advantage over other continents.

The final investment amount, route and business model will be defined by the feasibility study.

“The Antarctic cable will be the first digital route to establish a physical connection between Antarctica and the [rest of the] world, revolutionizing monitoring and understanding of the climate, the oceanography and ecosystems of the Southern Ocean,” Julián Suárez Migliozzi, CAF representative in Chile, said in a statement.

Tender details can be found here