(CMR) As the Government considers recommendations to proceed with a subsea cable project, a Latin American company has indicated it is considering extending its cable system to the Cayman Islands.
According to BNamericas, Liberty Networks (Liberty Latin America) is considering extending its cable system LN-1 to the Cayman Islands, although the company says the two cables connecting the islands have sufficient capacity to meet current demand.
“We believe the existing two cables provide sufficient capacity for the Cayman Islands, making a dedicated new cable unnecessary,” Ray Collins, Liberty Latin America's SVP of infrastructure and corporate strategy, told BNamericas.
The Cayman Islands are connected through cables Maya-1 and CJFS, which Collins said have “sufficient capacity to meet demand for the next decade,” adding that “Maya-1 is currently operating at less than 50% of its maximum capacity.”
However, the company is open to discussing the extension of the new LN-1 cable to the islands.
“We acknowledge the Cayman Islands' growing reliance on data. While current cable capacity is sufficient, Liberty Networks is open to discussing the extension of the new LN-1 cable to the Cayman Islands,” Collins said.
LN-1 will be combined with Gold Data's G-1 system. Scheduled for 2027, the segment will connect Panama and Cartagena in Colombia to GD-1's Cancún section. GD-1 will extend from Apalachee Beach and North Miami in the US to Veracruz and Cancún in Mexico.
The cable system is designed to have branches that can extend services throughout the Caribbean.
EXISTING CABLES
The three islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, are currently connected internationally via CJFS and Maya-1, which began operating in 1997 and 2000, respectively.
Maya-1 is a consortium cable connecting Half Moon Bay on Grand Cayman with Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. The landing station is owned by Cable & Wireless (C&W, part of Liberty Latin America).
CJFS connects Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac to Jamaica and is owned by C&W Networks.
“Liberty Networks proactively reviews and optimizes the subsea networks as part of our operational due diligence. The continuous preventive maintenance performed on Maya-1 will extend the system's life, and we believe it can be at least 10 additional years, well beyond the original 25-year manufacturer projection,” Collins said.