Columbus Networks has completed construction of a cable landing station in Boca Raton, Florida, crossing the last major step before the activation of an $80 million express undersea fiber optic route connecting South America with the United States via Colombia and Florida.

 

Paul Scott, president of Columbus Networks said that Boca Raton continues to develop as an international gateway for telecommunications access between the United States and the Caribbean and Latin America Region. Columbus Networks is the only network provider with a direct express route to Colombia from Boca Raton.

 

The Boca Raton landing station is one of three along the 2,400-kilometer undersea fiber optic cable route. The other two landing stations are in Morant Point, Jamaica, and Cartagena, Colombia. Columbus Networks and its affiliate companies operate a total of thirty five landing stations throughout the Americas and Caribbean regions, said the company officials.

 

According to Scott, Columbus Networks’ new landing station in Boca Raton creates geographical diversity from the current concentration of cable landings in Miami. He noted that this significantly lessens the risk of service disruptions caused by major weather disasters as it is unlikely these will simultaneously hit both locations with sufficient force to impact their hardened facilities.

 

Columbus Networks also maintains another major landing station in North Miami Beach, about 40 miles south of Boca Raton for network redundancy and route diversity, which Scott says is very appealing to other regional and international telecommunications carriers that require their services.

 

Popularly known as CFX-1, the Colombia to Florida express route represents one of the most important recent telecommunications projects for stimulating economic expansion, broadband growth and improved infrastructure reliability throughout the Caribbean and Latin America Region.

 

CFX-1 is scheduled for activation next month. Once the route is activated the telecommunications traffic can move from Florida to Colombia and back in about 24 milliseconds. Columbus Networks’ officials point out that a round-trip transmission from Florida to Jamaica can be completed within 15 milliseconds.

 

Columbus Networks is a wholesale communications service provider that offers advanced, high-speed bandwidth capacity to telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers.