<strong>-Convergencialatina: Liberty Networks said that the new Fénix submarine cable, which connects Venezuela and Curaçao, will bring “a transformation in Venezuela’s international connectivity.” Why this definition?

-Axael Arteaga (AA): At the technical level, the cable will enable latency of less than 4 milliseconds between Curaçao and Camurí, the landing point located about 40 kilometers from Caracas, Venezuela’s largest business center, which accounts for 40% of traffic. It uses new technology, with state-of-the-art SLTE equipment that enables native 400-Gbps connectivity, compared with the 100-Gbps capacity provided by existing cables.

The Curaçao hub is a strategic point for Liberty Networks, which has been developing it over the past five years to improve connectivity to Venezuela. With this latency, we will be able to offer much faster response times for IP transit. For regional connectivity, we will be interconnected with the entire Liberty Networks ecosystem, which comprises 55,000 kilometers of submarine network, allowing different countries in the region to be interconnected without having to route traffic through Miami.

-Convergencialatina: Other Liberty Networks cables, such as Arcos, already covered this route. What is the difference with Fénix?

-AA: It is true that we could do this before with Arcos. The difference is that Arcos was planned 26 years ago and landed in a zone in the western part of the country. Fénix therefore opens up a range of possibilities and, as our slogan says, enables the future, because Venezuela is an important point for content as the environment there evolves. Content companies that are not currently there will establish operations in the country, and when they arrive, we will already have a cable in place using new technology that provides 14 terabits of capacity.

-Convergencialatina: What is the current traffic in Venezuela?

-AA: It is well below that. Total traffic should be around 10 terabits of capacity. But by adding 14 terabits of new connectivity, we are enabling Venezuela’s technological future. We are also adding value-added services to that infrastructure, such as access to public clouds.

We believe that in the near future Venezuela will be opening up its entire oil and gas business to multinationals returning to the country, and two cables are better than one. Having more international routes out of the country is always beneficial. Today, that area has three landing stations: Puerto Viejo, Maiquetía and Camurí.

Fénix is also interconnected at the same station with Cantv’s coastal cable, which connects the entire northern part of the country and will be able to transmit capacity to this area, where only terrestrial capacity currently reaches. We are offering a diverse connectivity portfolio in Venezuela. We not only have Fénix, but also Arcos, and we also provide terrestrial services on the border with Colombia, where we have two capacity delivery points.

Basically, Liberty Networks’ vision is to become the preferred international connectivity provider through the various points we have via two cable stations, three submarine cables and two border crossing points.

-Convergencialatina: Why did you choose Cantv as a partner?

-AA: This is an infrastructure partnership. Cantv owns the Camurí cable station, while we own the cable station in Curaçao. So it is a matter of using existing infrastructure and cable stations that have already been built. It is the easiest way to deploy new connectivity for the country. Cantv will connect to our IP node in Curaçao and will be able to sell capacity and carry traffic through its cable.

-Convergencialatina: Who were the suppliers for the cable’s construction?

-AA: We have not yet disclosed the suppliers for regulatory reasons. We are in the process of selecting them.

-Convergencialatina: What is the investment agenda in Latin America?

-AA: In 2023, we announced a US$250 million investment earmarked for several projects, including the Manta cable, which connects Cancún, Miami, San Blas, Veracruz, Panama and Colombia. It is the largest-scale project.

We recently reconfigured Maya, which is now Maya 1.2 and connects Honduras, the Cayman Islands and Hollywood, Florida. There are various projects in the pipeline that will be announced in the coming months.

-Convergencialatina: A recent earthquake in Venezuela cut Cirion’s cable. Do you have any contingency plans for events like this?

-AA: You can build redundant networks, rings and meshes, but when there are force majeure events such as an earthquake, there is not much you can do other than implement repairs immediately. We are part of the ACMA (Atlantic and Indian Oceans Cable Maintenance Agreement), an international agreement for the maintenance and repair of submarine fiber-optic cables. As the operator with the most kilometers of cable, we have priority access to the vessels used for repairs.