<strong>Convergencialatina: Can you tell me about the current status of the Humboldt cable project?

Francisco Moreno (FM): This iconic project to transform Chile into the digital hub of Latin America is the result of a joint effort between the public entity “Desarrollo País” and the Undersecretary of Telecommunications. Currently, one can verify important advances in its stages.

We are currently in the stage of identifying a strategic partner that provides sufficient technical and commercial experience to initiate a capacity pre-sale process. The estimated start date to construct the Humboldt is 2023 and the start of service is preliminarily planned for 2025.

Convergencialatina: What is the estimated cost to deploy the cable and how will it be financed?

FM: The cost of the project is approximately US$ 450 million. It is feasible to identify at this time four financing sources: resources from Desarrollo País, strategic partners, state partners and financing partners.

But beyond the cost of this project, the benefits that this connection will have are varied. This cable will allow the country and the region to better face the challenges presented by the digital revolution and which has, as in the Pacific, one of its main focuses. This project will also position Chile as an important hub in the region, becoming the gateway to the exchange of data between South America and Asia, as well as an attractive place to install digital infrastructure, such as data centers.

The cable will also have a positive impact on the national economy, since it will strengthen the country's productive sectors, which may have a direct connection with Asian markets, promoting e-commerce and reinforcing the presence of their products in this continent. This project also establishes new connectivity routes for the country, obtaining greater availability and resilience in networks.

Convergencialatina: Can you tell me if you have been adding partners to the project such as Arsat from Argentina and the Brazilian government? What does the existence of these partners imply? What will each one do, what will they contribute?

FM: Chile currently represents 6% of South America's data transport service capacity. For this reason the “Humboldt” cable is a regional project whose layout will allow all interested countries to participate, adding demand. It is the first submarine cable that will link South America and Asia Pacific and the countries of the region know the importance of being directly connected to the Asian continent. In this context, there is support from Brazil and Argentina to be part of the submarine cable. The participation of both countries will allow a positive impact on telecommunications services of these countries by having a new route, and thus support in the aggregation of capacity. Currently, the form and conditions of participation of both countries are being negotiated, through the public companies that they designate and the amounts of associated capital.

Convergencialatina: How could this trend contribute to regional connectivity, installation of data centers, and reduce the cost of wholesale bandwidth, etc.?

FM: These new deployments are essential for the installation in Chile of a series of investments by DatanCenters of world-class multinationals such as Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and thanks to our plan to double the kilometers of fiber optic trunk and regional connectivity, another step will be taken to transform Chile into a Digital Hub. To this, if we add the deployment of projects such as the National Fiber Optic cable, the Austral Fiber Optic cable, the 16 regional Last Mile projects and the 12 new border crossings, we will expand the benefits of these new high-speed highways that are essential to install and build  these huge "data warehouses."