Tuatara Group organized and executed the LAC Regional Subsea Fiber Optic Cable Technologies Reverse Trade Mission which brought nine decision-makers from Chile and Ecuador to the U.S. for 11 calendar days. The visit included meetings in Washington, DC, New York, NY and Eatontown, NJ with subsea cable providers, developers, U.S. government organizations, industry associations, engineering firms and financiers. Of particular interest, the Government of Chile, through the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications, was seeking to build a subsea fiber optic cable system to connect South America to Asia and the Ecuadorian delegation was considering projects such as rural broadband strategies, 5G implementation, as well as the development of a cable project from their shoreline to the Galapagos Islands. Other key areas of interest included 5G technologies, data centers, cybersecurity technologies and rural broadband to bridge the digital divide.

 

To support the RTM’s mission, Tuatara organized a comprehensive industry briefing by several key experts in the subsea industry including its technical partner DRG, Tuatara also arranged a business briefing in Washington, DC at USTDA that was well attended by U.S. industry.

 

The team also organized a regulatory and policy roundtable that brought together government regulators and representatives from other agencies to discuss key policy issues facing cable projects. And as financing was such an important issue, the team organized a bilateral and multilateral financing roundtable in Washington, DC and a private sector financing roundtable in New York, NY. The delegate feedback indicated that they were very satisfied with the RTM program’s combination of best practices and U.S. company offerings. It helped them to better understand the steps in developing a cable project and organizing a spectrum auction.

 

The Chilean Government and Google recently announced a partnership to build the first submarine cable, the Humboldt connecting South America to Asia-Pacific.