11 May 2021

The Caribbean Express, a new multi-billion-dollar submarine cable system being rolled out by American telecom development firm, Ocean Networks, is making its way to Jamaica.

An 18-fibre pair subsea cable system linking the state of Florida to Panama, which is just being built out, is also being extended to the  Caribbean island’s capital, Kingston.

In the initial phase the Caribbean Express network will not only run between Palm Beach, Florida and Balboa, Panama, but with additional landing points in Cancún, Mexico and Cartagena, Colombia. 

Ocean Networks disclosed plans to build more than a dozen landing points along the route in the coming years in cities such Kingston (Jamaica), Havana (Cuba), George Town (Grand Cayman), Puerto Barrios (Guatemala), Puerto Lempira (Honduras), Bluefields (Nicaragua), and Limón (Costa Rica). 

The firm also said that once launched, the submarine cable system will be the only system that can offer dedicated dark fibre pair indefeasible right of use (IRU) in the Caribbean market. An IRU permits customer to have exclusive use of fibres throughout the term of a contract.