Antillas 1

Overview

Antillas 1 is a regional submarine cable system spanning 601 kilometres and connecting the Dominican Republic and the United States. It serves the corridor between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, linking two Caribbean and North Atlantic territories across a relatively short inter-island stretch.

Route and Landings

In the Dominican Republic, Antillas 1 lands at two points: Cacique and Punta Cana. These two landings provide the cable with geographic distribution along the Dominican coastline.

In the United States, the cable lands at Isla Verde in Puerto Rico, connecting the system to US territory in the northeastern Caribbean.

Ownership and Operators

Antillas 1 is jointly owned by five stakeholders: Altice Dominicana, Antelecom, Claro Dominicana (Codetel), Liberty Networks, and Setar. This multi-party ownership reflects the involvement of several regional telecommunications operators with established presences in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the broader Caribbean. Setar is the national telecommunications provider of Aruba.

Status and Timeline

Antillas 1 entered service in 1997, making it one of the earliest submarine cable systems to land in the Dominican Republic, which recorded its first cable that same year. The system has now been operational for approximately 29 years.

Regional Context

Within the corridor linking the Dominican Republic and the United States, Antillas 1 is among the shorter systems, measuring longer than only 11 percent of the other cables connecting these two countries. Most cables sharing this corridor — including South America-1 (SAm-1) and GlobeNet — are intercontinental systems measured in tens of thousands of kilometres, operating at a very different geographic scale. Antillas 1, by contrast, is a focused intra-Caribbean link rather than an ocean-spanning route.

Over the last 60 days, measured round-trip latency through Antillas 1 has averaged 135.7 ms, with a best recorded value of 102.0 ms across 98 ping tests.

Strategic Role

Antillas 1 provides direct submarine connectivity between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, a US territory that serves as a major telecommunications hub for the Caribbean region. With landings at both Cacique and Punta Cana on the Dominican side, the cable distributes connectivity across more than one point on that coastline. Its five co-owners collectively represent a cross-section of Caribbean and regional telecom operators, reflecting the shared interest in maintaining this bilateral link. Given its 1997 ready-for-service date, it represents one of the earliest elements of the current submarine cable infrastructure serving the Dominican Republic.