América Móvil Aims to Build Most Extensive Submarine Network

Telecommunication companies América Móvil and Telxius plan to connect Guatemala and the US through a new ultrahigh capacity submarine cable link, as part of their ongoing commitment to improve global communications, according to a press release. With the addition of this cable link in 2025, América Móvil will have built a 197,000 km submarine cable network, the largest in the region. 

“Named AMX3 by América Móvil and Tikal by Telxius, this subsea cable will be the highest capacity undersea cable to connect Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) with Boca Raton (US),” reads the press release. Yet to be confirmed is a possible landing link to Cancun, Mexico, as represented in the official figure below. 

Serving as a key route in the Caribbean, the 18,300km submarine cable is forecasted to have an initial capacity of 190Tbps, allowing for the “highest levels of service, reliability and security.” The supply contract is already under way with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), yet providing options to increase capacity to incorporate additional banking units to serve other destinations. 

For América Móvil, the project marks an important milestone in its ambition to build the most extensive subsea network in the Americas. Ultimately, the 197,000km submarine network will connect the US, Central and South America with 18 landing points between both systems, sufficient to provide connectivity to all of its subsidiaries in these regions. 

Meanwhile, Tikal will be Telxius 7th multiterabit cable to be completed since 2018, fully serving the Americas and the EU while enhancing traditional routes as well. Overall, Texius will feature an 82,000km network serving the most important digital hubs on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 

This marks the second high profile project for ASN, which is also charged with the construction of the Bifrost Rosarito Submarine Cable System (Bifrost), set to link Singapore with Mexico. These projects are set to begin laying cable over 2023 and set to finish in early 2024, just a year ahead of AMX3. The Bifrost submarine cable will follow a planned route of approximately 1,116km. The system will also feature very high traffic availability thanks to its multiple single-end feeding electrical reconfigurations.