MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile planning a fiber link directly with Antarctica

Chilean Antarctica base and airport, President Eduardo Frei Montalva

Chile is planning an undersea fiber cable linking the country with Antarctica and several bases in the southernmost continent. With this purpose, Chile signed an agreement with Latin America's Development Bank, CAF to begin feasibility studies

This agreement took place two years after the potential of a cable link to Antarctica was first considered, although, at the time it was supposed to be an add-on to another project called the Humboldt cable.

Chile's telecommunications hub Subtel, says that this initiative will verify the feasibility of the proposed project, which aims to provide infrastructure that will enable the sending of data from Antarctica.

It also points out that in the Antarctic continent there are different research centers that currently have to wait several days to send information to the different areas of the world that require it. With the installation of infrastructure, that time will be reduced.

Chile’s Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Claudio Araya, points out that bringing digital connectivity to Chile is a huge challenge, “but it is a greater technical challenge if we think of reaching Antarctica, where there are Chileans who work hard in scientific research”.

CAF is a development bank committed to improving the quality of life for all Latin Americans and Caribbeans, whose actions promote sustainable development and regional integration. Its executive president, Sergio Díaz-Granados, points out: “With this agreement we are going to solve several technical questions about the importance of the connection of the Magellan Region to Antarctica; it can also serve to improve data collection.”

Explaining that CAF is working with Subtel on a number of initiatives including the Zero Digital Divide Plan and Humboldt Cable, he adds: “We want to consolidate Chile as a great digital hub. This will require physical infrastructure, more computing capacity and access to that infrastructure on the part of households and companies. We are on a path to accompany Chile's effort to become a digital hub in Latin America and the Caribbean.”