Telefónica International Whole Services (TIWS) will conclude works to connect Ecuador to the SAM-1 cable on the 15th of this month. The high-capacity fiber optic ring of Telefónica unites the main markets of Latin America among themselves and the United States, where it interconnects to other international networks. Germán Alonso, voice business executive vice-president of TIWS for America and the Pacific, explained to Convergencialatina that the SAM-1 “was inaugurated in March 2001 and at that moment the extension to Ecuador was not carried out because the company was looking for more attractive markets. The total investment of this cable was some € 1.3 billion. Now, from the cable –which passes through 1,000 kilometers of coastal waters- a new project to connect Punta Carnero, a beach close to Guayaquil in the municipality of Salinas has arisen”.

For more than one year TIWS has been working in Ecuador and Alonso is very optimist to this work. “Every time we have a project to make a new extension, we first look to sell capacity”. That process was carried out in Ecuador, where we first spoke to carriers and proposed to them the possibility to commit some capacity. We already have pre-sale contracts with close to seven clients, among them: Andinatel, Pacifitel, Telconet, Movistar, TVCable, Accessram and the place of Cuenca, which has a telecommunications company, appear.” He anticipated.

Alonso explained that once the works conclude, Ecuador will have a connection capacity of 160 Gbps. This project, in which TIWS will invest close to US$ 35 million, has been analyzed for some time, but suffered several delays among other things, for example, the  presidential transition, even though the new government expects the entrance to solve its lack of connectivity.

Up to now, Ecuador has only one cable consortium, the Pan-American, which reaches Punta Carnero but, according to Alonso, it has almost reached its saturation point. In addition, the country also connects terrestrially through Peru and Colombia. In sight of this environment, the executive of TIWS advanced that the connection to SAM-1 will decrease costs of international broadband up to the station of connection. In Ecuador, the offer that we made to the Government is of some US$ 70,000 per month. Then there is a transmission and an access to the home of each client that we do not control. We suppose that the regulating authority will do everything in its hands so the rest accompanies them”. Nevertheless, he admitted that the client will most likely perceive lower cost because it is common that in all the markets “through the announcement of  a new cable, costs begin to decrease”.

Lastly, Alonso spoke about previous declarations of Global Crossing to Convergencialatina in where they pointed out that they wanted to reach Ecuador with their submarine cable  and admitted that they knew that that company had talked to the regulating entity of that country with that aim. However, he underrated that initiative and said: “when we began to evaluate the project we realized that we were the only ones that had a firm purpose to enter that market”. Likewise, if they now want to enter that market, we have already leveled the road for them”.