Friday, June 6, 2025

Better internet for Baja: cable firm to lay new fiber optic cable

By February next year, residents of Baja California Sur should have access to cheaper, faster and more reliable telecommunications services via a new 250-kilometer-long underwater fiber optic cable that will connect the state to the rest of Mexico.

Jalisco-based telecommunications company Megacable Holdings will lay the cable across the Sea of Cortés at depths of up to 3,500 meters between Topolobampo, Sinaloa, and La Paz, Baja California Sur.

The 450-million-peso (US $23.5 million) project is backed by the federal Secretariats of Communications and Transportation (SCT) and Environment (Semarnat).

At the signing of the public-private partnership agreement, federal Communications Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said the two government departments will provide technical support to complete the project, which is intended to improve telephone, internet and television services in the state.

The new cable has an estimated life span of 25 years and will replace one that has been in service for around two decades.

Baja California Sur Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis said the lack of connectivity in the state had destroyed competition for telecommunications services and has meant that residents face a digital divide compared to Mexicans who live in other parts of the country.

He also said that limited telecommunications connectivity has acted as a brake on economic and social development in the state.

However, that should change following the scheduled completion of the project in the second month of next year.

SCT undersecretary Edgar Olvera said the new cable has two objectives: provide the certainty of connectivity for the next 25 years and give investors an incentive to do business in the state and provide a greater range of telecommunications services to residents.

The state’s tourism, commercial, industrial, health, government and education sectors will also benefit from the infrastructure project.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
workers in orange vests wade through water filled with sargassum seaweed

Record levels of sargassum could invade Quintana Roo beaches this summer

0
With millions of metric tons of seaweed floating in the Atlantic, the sargassum starting to pile up on Quintana Roo beaches is just the beginning.
several men seated at a dais

Governors of northeastern states agree to team up against border region insecurity

0
Repatriated immigrants are a rich source of crime victims near the border. Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León want to work together to deal with the resulting rise in insecurity.
A woman picks up plastic bottles on a beach

National Beach Cleanup Strategy aims to eliminate plastic pollution

2
The new environmental plan kicked off Thursday with a national beach cleanup day, in honor of World Environment Day.