Punta Salinas, PR, United States

Punta Salinas, PR: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Punta Salinas is a submarine cable landing point located on the coast of Puerto Rico, a United States territory in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico sits at a geographic crossroads in the Caribbean Sea, and its southern and northern shores host several submarine cable touchpoints that connect the island to the broader Americas and beyond. Punta Salinas is home to one submarine cable, GTMO-PR, which links Puerto Rico directly to Cuba, establishing a bilateral corridor between a United States territory and its neighboring island nation.

The single cable landing at Punta Salinas serves a regionally specific purpose, connecting Puerto Rico to Cuba across a relatively short stretch of the Caribbean. This makes Punta Salinas a focused terminus rather than a broad multi-cable hub, with its connectivity oriented toward the Cuba–Puerto Rico corridor.

Cables Landing at Punta Salinas, PR

GTMO-PR is the sole submarine cable landing at Punta Salinas. The cable has a total length of approximately 1,400 km and reached ready-for-service status in 2019, with a draft designation on its status. In addition to its landing at Punta Salinas in Puerto Rico, GTMO-PR also connects to Cuba, forming a direct submarine link between these two Caribbean locations. The cable's name references Guantánamo, reflecting the specific geographic points it serves between United States-affiliated territory and Cuba.

Regional Context

Within the United States submarine cable network, which spans 75 cables across 119 landing points, Punta Salinas hosts a single cable and ranks within the top 72% of domestic landing points by cable count. Puerto Rico itself is well represented in the broader United States cable landscape, with San Juan hosting six cables and Isla Verde hosting four. Punta Salinas is a more specialized landing point compared to these busier Puerto Rico sites, serving a distinct bilateral route rather than a wide range of international connections.

Network Role

Punta Salinas functions as a single-cable terminus, with its network role defined entirely by the GTMO-PR cable and its connection between Puerto Rico and Cuba. This corridor is notably distinct from the other Puerto Rico landing points, which tend to serve broader Atlantic and Caribbean routes. Punta Salinas therefore occupies a specific niche in the regional submarine cable graph, providing a dedicated link between United States territorial infrastructure and Cuba.

In the wider Caribbean submarine cable topology, the Punta Salinas landing point represents one of the relatively few direct cable connections between a United States-affiliated location and Cuba, making this short but geographically targeted route a notable element of Caribbean regional connectivity.