Chilean Study Confirms Antarctica Subsea Cable Is Technically Feasible
Two routes mapped through the Drake Passage at $370 million and $620 million
Chile has completed a feasibility study for a subsea cable system connecting Antarctica to the global fibre-optic network, confirming the project's technical viability. The study began in February of last year, led by Salience Consulting and Pioneer Consulting on behalf of Chile's telecommunications regulator Subtel, and was financed by the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Chinese state-backed Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance.
The team assessed 55 Antarctic facilities over more than a year, producing a final report running to close to 2,000 pages. The cable would run to Antarctica from Chile's Magallanes region through the Drake Passage, and the study set out two deployment configurations divided into stages by length and cost.
The base route connects Punta Arenas and Punta Williams with the three Chilean Antarctic bases, running about 1,600 kilometres at a cost of $370 million. The full configuration extends to about 4,100 kilometres with nine landing points in Antarctica, connecting bases operated by five countries including Argentina, Brazil, the United States and the United Kingdom. That version is estimated at $620 million.
The case rests on scientific data transfer. Juan Pablo, one of the team leaders on the pre-feasibility study, said Antarctic science currently leaves the continent in suitcases full of hard drives. With a cable, he said, the data would travel in real time, and with smart sensors integrated into the fibre the cable itself becomes a scientific instrument, measuring temperature, pressure and seismic activity live from the bottom of the Drake.
The study noted that while the technology to implement the project already exists, the difficult part will be mobilising financing and political will, and Chile has to secure agreement from the other Antarctic states.
The feasibility study has been submitted to Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is expected to present the findings to the country's Antarctic Policy Council for deliberation. If a decision to proceed is reached, the council would lead international coordination to bring the other Antarctic states on board. Factoring in those agreements, the project is estimated to take around eight years.
For the marine contracting sector, a Drake Passage crossing would rank among the more demanding cable-lay campaigns attempted, requiring offshore vessels capable of working one of the roughest stretches of open water in a narrow seasonal window.
