Tenerife-Gran Canaria

Overview

Tenerife-Gran Canaria is a short intra-Spanish submarine cable connecting two landing points within the Canary Islands. Spanning 110 km, it serves the inter-island corridor between Tenerife and Gran Canaria, both part of Spain's Canary Islands archipelago. The cable is owned and operated by Telefónica, the Spanish telecommunications group.

Route and Landings

Both landing points lie within the Canary Islands, Spain. The cable comes ashore at El Médano, on the island of Tenerife, and at Sardina, on the island of Gran Canaria. These two endpoints span the sea channel separating the two islands.

Ownership and Operators

Tenerife-Gran Canaria is wholly owned by Telefónica, one of Spain's largest telecommunications operators and a company with a broad infrastructure presence across Europe and Latin America.

Status and Timeline

The cable entered service in 1999 and has been operational for approximately 27 years. No end-of-service date is recorded.

Regional Context

Spain hosts 25 submarine cables landing across 41 landing points, reflecting a mature and well-developed submarine cable environment. At 110 km, Tenerife-Gran Canaria is notably short relative to others touching Spain — longer than only 8% of those cables — which reflects its purely intra-island function rather than any intercontinental or continental-scale role.

The broader Spanish cable landscape includes several long-haul international systems. 2Africa, which reached service in 2024 at 45,000 km, and Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), ready for service in 2012 at 17,000 km, both land in Spain and span oceanic distances. More recent additions include Grace Hopper (7,191 km, RFS 2022) and forthcoming systems such as Anjana (7,121 km, RFS 2026), Medusa (8,760 km, RFS 2026), and Sol (8,153 km, RFS 2027). Tenerife-Gran Canaria occupies a distinct position among these: it is a short, domestic inter-island link rather than a transoceanic system.

Strategic Role

By linking El Médano on Tenerife with Sardina on Gran Canaria, this cable provides a dedicated undersea connection between two of the most populous islands in the Canary Islands group. For a territory whose islands are separated by open water, submarine cable infrastructure of this kind forms a direct path for data exchange between the islands, complementing whatever terrestrial or satellite alternatives may exist within the archipelago.