Ecuadorian telecommunications company Telconet plans to invest $550 million over the next two years to deploy the Carnival Submarine Networks-1 (CSN-1) submarine cable system and build six Edge data centers in Latin America, BNamericas has reported.

The announcement of the investment comes after the Ecuadorian government's telecommunications regulator, Arcotel, revoked Telconet's operating license for Cable Andino, which provides Ecuador with international Internet access, in November 2024.

Arcotel attributed this decision to financial and regulatory irregularities discovered following Cable Andino's request to connect a new submarine cable, thought to be the CSN-1.

Despite the controversy, Telconet announced in May the selection of critical digital infrastructure provider Vertiv to build a cable landing station (CLS) in Colombia to host CSN-1.

According to BNamericas, Telconet commercial director Francisco Villacreses has told the media outlet that "there are no irregularities" and said that the company is working with the authorities to resolve the situation.

"After the mobile [companies], we are the largest operator in the country. Obviously, because we are a large operator and in a strategic sector such as telecommunications, we always have this visibility with the different governments in power," Villacreses told BNamericas.

Data center expansion

The announced investment excludes future extensions of CSN-1 and a second system (CSN-2) that plans to connect Veracruz in Mexico with Appalachian Bay in northern Florida.

"We are in a live project to build six data centers, which are in addition to the two existing ones in Ecuador, to finish in 2027," Villacreses told the media outlet.

"Our strategy is going towards peripheral data centers, smaller infrastructures, but directly connected to regional submarine cables, developing a large and highly connected cloud."

The new data centers will be located in Barranquilla in Colombia, Costa del Este in Panama, and Bonita Springs in Florida.

In addition, Telconet plans data centers in the Ecuadorian cities of Guayaquil and Santa Elena and the capital, Quito, where Telconet is seeking land for a second data center.

The CSN-1 is a 4,500 km (2,796 miles) submarine fiber optic cable system developed by Telconet to connect Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador to the west coast of the US. The system is designed to be extended to Mexico, Peru, and Chile.

Update: Work on the cable landing station for CNS-1 in Panama has begun. ProPanama, the Panama Government's investment promotion agency, this week announced Telconet has broken ground on a 1.5MW, 160-rack data center.

According to air conditioning firm Westric, Telconet's Earth Station in Ecuador, located in the Anconcito parish of Santa Elena, is a key infrastructure for the CSN-1 submarine cable. The facility will reportedly house the equipment necessary to operate the cable.

This piece was automatically translated from DCD's Spanish site and edited by a member of DCD staff.