Maldonado, Uruguay

Position in regional infrastructure

Maldonado is the capital of the Maldonado Department in eastern Uruguay, the country's fourth-most-populated city, sitting at coordinates 34.900380°S, 54.950180°W on the southern Atlantic coast. Together with neighbouring Punta del Este and San Carlos it forms a conurbation of approximately 135,000 inhabitants. For submarine cable infrastructure, Maldonado functions as Uruguay's main international landing point: three cables connect from here to neighbouring Argentina and onward to Brazil, providing the country's primary fibre-optic gateway to South American and intercontinental backbones.

All three Maldonado cables route west-southwest to Las Toninas in Argentina — a high-density landing cluster on Argentina's Atlantic coast that hosts onward connections into the wider South American and intercontinental cable mesh. One of the three cables (Tannat) extends further northeast to Santos in Brazil, giving Maldonado a single direct path to Brazil. The remaining international transit (to Brazil's deeper-water Pacific routes or Atlantic transatlantic systems) is reached via Las Toninas onward routes.

Submarine cables landing in Maldonado

Tannat is a 2,000 km submarine cable in service since 2018, jointly owned by Antel Uruguay and Google. From Maldonado, Tannat reaches Las Toninas in Argentina and continues northward to Santos in Brazil — making it the only cable from Maldonado with a direct path to Brazilian landings. Google's involvement reflects 2018-era hyperscaler investment in dedicated South American CDN edge infrastructure for content delivery to the region's growing internet population.

Bicentenario is a 250 km submarine cable in service since 2011, jointly owned by Antel Uruguay and Telecom Argentina. It runs directly from Maldonado to Las Toninas, providing a national-operator-funded link between Uruguay and Argentina. The cable was named for the 2011 bicentennial of Argentine and Uruguayan independence movements; its joint state-and-private ownership marks it as a binational infrastructure project rather than a hyperscaler or pure-commercial deployment.

Unisur is a 265 km submarine cable in service since 1995, jointly owned by Antel Uruguay and Telxius. Also running between Maldonado and Las Toninas, Unisur is the oldest of the three Maldonado landings and was the first dedicated submarine cable connection between the two countries — a pre-internet-boom system originally laid for telephone and early data traffic that has been progressively upgraded.

Connection topology and redundancy

All three Maldonado cables share Las Toninas as a destination, giving Uruguay strong redundancy on the Argentina link: a fault on any one cable leaves two operational paths to the same Argentine landing. The three cables are also operated by different ownership configurations (Antel + Google, Antel + Telecom Argentina, Antel + Telxius), reducing single-operator risk despite Antel's presence in all three. The shared landing at Las Toninas is itself a concentration risk — a fault at the Argentine end affects all three cables simultaneously, which is the structural counterpart to the Uruguayan-end redundancy.

The single onward path to Brazil (Tannat to Santos) is the principal redundancy gap. If the Tannat Brazil segment fails, Maldonado retains Argentine connectivity but loses its only direct submarine path to Brazil; Brazilian-bound traffic must then reach Brazil via terrestrial fibre from Argentina, or via Argentina-onward submarine routes. Given Uruguay's heavy commercial and financial integration with Brazil, this single-path Brazil dependency is a documented infrastructure consideration in regional resilience planning.

Geography and coordinates

The Maldonado submarine cable landing sits at 34.900380°S, 54.950180°W (34°54'01"S, 54°57'00"W), on the south Atlantic coast of Uruguay in the Maldonado Department. The location places it within the Punta del Este urban conurbation, where the deep-water access of the South Atlantic provides suitable cable approach corridors close to shore. The site is approximately 130 km east of the capital Montevideo by road.

Frequently asked questions

What submarine cables land in Maldonado?

Three submarine cables land at Maldonado: Tannat (RFS 2018, to Argentina and Brazil), Bicentenario (RFS 2011, to Argentina), and Unisur (RFS 1995, to Argentina). Together they provide Uruguay's main international fibre-optic connectivity.

What are the coordinates of the Maldonado cable landing?

The Maldonado cable landing is at 34.900380°S, 54.950180°W (34°54'01"S, 54°57'00"W), on Uruguay's southern Atlantic coast within the Maldonado Department.

Which countries connect to Uruguay through Maldonado?

Maldonado provides Uruguay's submarine cable connections to Argentina (via all three cables, all reaching Las Toninas) and to Brazil (via Tannat continuing to Santos). Onward connectivity from these Argentine and Brazilian landings reaches the wider South American and intercontinental cable network.

When was the first submarine cable laid at Maldonado?

The earliest cable at Maldonado in the GeoCables dataset is Unisur, in service since 1995 — predating the modern internet-era buildout of the region. Bicentenario (2011) and Tannat (2018) followed as Uruguay's bandwidth requirements grew.

Who operates the cables landing at Maldonado?

Antel Uruguay co-owns all three cables. Tannat is co-owned with Google; Bicentenario is co-owned with Telecom Argentina; Unisur is co-owned with Telxius. The Antel presence in every cable reflects Uruguay's state telecommunications monopoly model, while the international co-owners vary by cable era and purpose.