The Deep Blue Cable undersea cable infrastructure company backed by Digicel Group founder and chairman Denis O'Brien could land two spurs of its Caribbean network on the island of Cuba, according to a report in the Irish Times. Maps published by Deep Blue of the proposed cable system show a ring of undersea fibre circumnavigating the Caribbean, with one possible spur landing about 100 miles west of Havana, near Harlem, while the other lands on the southern side of Cuba, at the Bay of Pigs. The report adds that if Deep Blue’s cable were to land on Cuba and traverse the island, it would significantly shorten the proposed route.
Saint Lucia-based Deep Blue made no comments regarding the possibility but O’Brien has previously described the island as an “interesting” investment prospect. The regional cable company this month begins preparatory work on connecting a series of Caribbean island nations and Miami, with the project aiming to be operational by the end of 2019. In July it contracted TE SubCom to build the nearly 12,000-km system with initial landing points in 12 markets, including the Cayman Islands, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.
