It will be the first line to reach Antarctica, the only continent where no optical fiber reaches. The announcement of local and global relevance was made moments ago by Horacio Martínez, CEO of Grupo Datco, at the closing of NPlay Southern Cone 2021, organized by Grupo Convergencia. An more than US$ 30 million investment is estimated for this project aimed at humanity and has great geopolitical significance.

The arrival of this cable, which must be anchored on the underwater bottom of the mystical and turbulent waters of the Drake Pass, seeks to provide broadband service to the world scientific community that is established on the Antarctic continent, according to Martínez. The project contemplates establishing the first Antarctic scientific hub, based on a fiber connection that would connect Ushuaia, Puerto Williams and this hub.

The initiative contemplates, in a first stage, linking Ushuaia with Puerto Williams, crossing the Beagle Channel, and then connecting the peninsula of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, through the Drake Pass, with Isla Rey Jorge, known in Argentina as Isla 25 de Mayo where the hub will be built. It should be remembered that nine countries carry out scientific research in the bases permanently installed on San Jorge Island (Argentina, Russia, Korea, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, China, the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic). Furthermore, as part of that hub, a Software Factory could be installed.

As Martínez pointed out, in Puerto Williams the route could be interconnected with the Austral Fiber Optic (FOA, in Spanish), deployed by Silica in Chile, and from there with the Silica network in Caleta Tortel. Then, return to Argentina through the Balmaceda junction in Coyhaique. Sequentially, there is a local fiber in Tierra del Fuego deployed by the province, which connects with the Arsat line.

The estimated investment would be more than US$ 30 million. Datco will make an initial disbursement of US$ 2 million (through the Silica Networks subsidiaries of Argentina, Chile and Brazil) for the feasibility study of the project, while building the necessary alliances to establish a company that build the cable.

Martínez has been outlining the idea for some time now together with a group of professionals. “Argentina is the country that is closest to Antarctica. Tierra del Fuego from the mainland is only 976 km away, making it the road least exposed to accidents or cuts in the underwater bed,” he detailed.

From the “virtual” stage of NPlay Southern Cone 2021, he invited the industry to join a work project that promises to be demanding, “but that could contribute to the future of humanity,” he said. “We are talking about the southernmost place in the world, and we know that we will have to find out about new technologies, due to the movements of the ice. We are inclined to seek a utopia, thinking of a more multipolar world. Even through Chile and the future transoceanic cable to Australia, we could be sending data from Ushuaia to Oceania,” stated the CEO of Datco.