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)