ETECSA and Orange agreed to lay a submarine cable that would help cover Cuba's demand for broadband Internet connection. Photo taken from Radio Cumanayagua-ICRT

Havana, Feb 1 (RHC) Cuba will have ready next April the operational capacities of the Arimao international submarine fiber optic cable project, after the physical laying of the cable across the sea between the Caribbean Island of Martinique and Cienfuegos.

The president of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), Tania Velázquez, informed that with this cable Cuba will have greater international connection capacity than with the Alba-1 cable, executed with Venezuela, until now the only connectivity route the nation had.

President of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), Tania Velázquez,

It is a system deployed by the French company Orange, through its subsidiary Orange Marine, which will connect Martinique with Cienfuegos, in what will be a new route for international services, diversifying geographically the current connectivity, as part of the development plan linked to the informatization of society.

Currently, the linking process and future tests are being carried out, after the physical maritime deployment has been completed, and work is being done on the completion of the terrestrial part, as well as on the integration of the equipment and systems of the interconnected points.

In December last year, ETECSA and the French company agreed to lay a submarine cable that would help cover Cuba's demand for broadband Internet connection.

The illustrative image is taken from the Victoria newspaper

In statements to the press, Velázquez specified that the actions planned by the Cuban telecommunications operator seek to alleviate the congestion of navigation through mobile data, especially during the peak time from 20:00 to 22:00, local time.

During that period, an average of around two million concurrent customers are connected.

She added that currently, more than seven million 600 thousand mobile lines are active in the country, of which more than six million 700 thousand have access to the network (Source: Prensa Latina).