Submarine Cable Agreement Signed to Connect Caribbean to the United States

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Members of the submarine cable agreement (CELIA) consortium have introduced CELIA, a new high-capacity “express” cable in the region connecting Aruba, Martinique, Antigua, Puerto Rico, and Boca Raton in the United States. 

According to a release from the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), the new cable using the latest submarine fiber optic technologies, known as CELIA, Caribbean ELIte Alliance, will span over 3700 km and link key points in the Caribbean and North America, featuring a minimum of eight fiber pairs, offering a minimum of 22 Terabits per second per fiber pair, and providing an initial estimated capacity of more than 170 Tbps. 

CELIA is expected to go live in the third quarter of 2027.

“The members of the CELIA consortium are SETAR as the landing partner in Aruba; Orange as the landing partner in Martinique; Telxius as the landing partner in Puerto Rico and Boca Raton, US, while also offering 24/7 monitoring and security from its Network Operations Centers (NOC); and APUA as the landing partner in Antigua and Barbuda.”

Alcatel Submarine Networks has been selected as the end-to-end supplier for the submarine cable infrastructure, connecting CELIA between the landing partners. 

The contract is already in force including options to increase capacity and to add new landing points.