Hookup to third undersea data cable set for July
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica will hook up with an undersea international data cable in July, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said Thursday.
The cable will be installed by Global Crossing, and it will be in the Pacific. The country now is connected to the world with two undersea cables, the Maya 1 and the Arcos, and both are in the Caribbean.
The cable will come ashore at Esterillos de Parrita, Puntarenas, and a facility is being constructed there. From that point the cable will be connected to the nation's data distribution system that carries, among other signals, international Internet.
The telecommunications institute said it was investing $30 million in the project, which was described as being on time. When the company announced the project in May 2006, it said the cable would be hooked up by late 2007.
U.S. based Global Crossing has an undersea cable that runs from Panamá to Los Angeles.
The increased bandwidth provided by the additional cable is critical to the Internet development of the country for voice-over-Internet telephone calls and Internet television and teleconferencing, and the telecommunications institute said that the addition of the Pacific cable would increase the nations competitively.