Regional Government wants to follow fibre optic submarine cable process ever more closely - Communication

Direção Regional das Comunicações e da Transição Digital

The contract to supply the new fibre optic submarine cable system that will connect Mainland Portugal to the Azores and Madeira in a ring, which will be designated Atlantic CAM, was signed today.

The contract, amounting to 154 million Euros, was signed by Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and the company selected to implement this infrastructure, Alcatel Submarine Cables (ASN). This new system will replace the current CAM Ring, which is nearing the end of its useful life.

The Regional Director for Communications and Digital Transition (DRCTD), Pedro Batista, present at the session, emphasised that this is "a happy day for the Azores and Portugal, but, unfortunately, it comes four years too late."

"We now hope to be able to follow this project more closely and that it is not delayed any further," he noted.

In this process, Pedro Batista also emphasised that "there are still important questions" to which the Region has yet to receive an answer.

These include, for example, knowing who and how the current solution will be operational until the new system is completed and in operation, and when the National Government will replace the inter-island submarine cable connection. The latter is nearing the end of its useful life and is responsible for the digital connectivity of the islands to each other and of seven of them to the rest of the world.

The Regional Director also wants to know "how the planned 50% price reduction will be transferred to people and companies in the Azores, and how the Region will be granted access to the new scientific data from the SMART component."

The cables now used in the new Atlantic CAM are new generation and also feature new technology (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications), with prices for the operation of this infrastructure being more than 50% lower than those currently in force.

The Atlantic CAM is intended to boost Portugal as an Atlantic submarine cable mooring platform. It will be the central interconnection between the Atlantic and Europe, the main gateway for submarine cables originating on the American continent and an important lever for the European Datacentre and Communications Network.