A new subsea cable connecting the Caribbean and South America has gone live.

Pan-Caribbean telco Digicel this week announced its Deep Blue One cable has officially launched.

The 2,250km cable has five landing points in Cayenne, French Guiana; Georgetown, Guyana; Paramaribo, Suriname; Chaguaramas and Rockly Bay, Trinidad & Tobago.

The cable has two to eight fiber pairs in each of its five branching units and offers a minimum of 12Tbps capacity per fiber pair, according to Submarine Networks.

Orange is the landing party in Cayenne for the French Guiana branch and also operates the cable landing station on behalf of Digicel. Orange Marine laid the cable.

The launch of the Deep Blue One cable means Digicel has rebranded its Southern Caribbean Fiber cable also as Deep Blue One. The cables will now operate as part of the same system, said Submarine Networks.

Marcelo Cataldo, CEO at Digicel, said: “Subsea fiber has long been the backbone of global connectivity, and Deep Blue One is set to serve as a catalyst for the next wave of economic development in the region. At Digicel, our focus has always been on keeping our customers connected to the people and things that matter most; driving economic development in the countries we serve is a key part of that.”

Digicel’s Deep Blue One cable is separate from the Deep Blue Cable system that was set to connect the Cayman Islands in 2020, but is yet to launch.

The cable formerly named Southern Caribbean Fiber is owned and operated by Southern Caribbean Fiber, a subsidiary of Digicel.

Other cables in the region include the Eastern Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS), ECLink, and the Suriname-Guyana Submarine cable system (SG-SCS).