Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico sits at a busy crossroads of Caribbean cable routes, served by five active submarine systems that tie the island to North America, Latin America and the broader Atlantic network.
Connectivity at a glance
- Cable systems
- 5active
- Landing points
- 0
- Resilience score
- 45
Cable systems serving Puerto Rico
| Cable | Status | Ready for service | Length | Design capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| America Movil Submarine Cable System-1 (AMX-1) | active | RFS 2014 | — | — |
| ANTILLAS I | active | — | — | — |
| ARCOS-1 | active | — | — | — |
| GCN | active | — | — | — |
| TAINO CARIB | active | — | — | — |
Landing points
Landing point records for Puerto Rico are being compiled.
A Caribbean cable hub
Puerto Rico occupies a geographically advantageous position in the northeastern Caribbean, placing it within reach of cable routes running between North America, the Lesser and Greater Antilles, and South America. Five active submarine cable systems serve the island, a count that puts Puerto Rico among the better-connected territories in the region and provides a meaningful degree of path diversity for an island jurisdiction.
The Americas Movil Submarine Cable System-1 (AMX-1), which entered service in 2014, is the most clearly dated system in the portfolio. Operated under the AMX-1 banner, it forms part of a broader regional loop architecture that links multiple Caribbean and Latin American landing points, giving Puerto Rico access to capacity that extends well beyond its immediate neighbourhood.
The cable mix
Alongside AMX-1, Puerto Rico is served by ARCOS-1, ANTILLAS I, GCN and TAINO CARIB. Together, these systems represent a spread of cable vintages and ownership structures that is broadly characteristic of a territory that has attracted consistent commercial interest from carriers serving the Caribbean corridor. ARCOS-1 is a well-established regional ring system connecting numerous Caribbean islands and Central American coasts. ANTILLAS I and TAINO CARIB serve more localised inter-island connectivity within the archipelago, while GCN adds further capacity into the mix.
The presence of five distinct systems reduces the risk of a single cable fault causing widespread outage — a vulnerability that smaller Caribbean islands with one or two landings must manage more carefully. That said, the resilience picture depends heavily on where each cable actually makes landfall and how diverse the underlying routes are at the physical layer. Without documented landing point data for Puerto Rico in this register, precise route diversity cannot be fully assessed here; that information will be added as it is confirmed.
Geography and strategic position
Puerto Rico's location near the northern edge of the Caribbean Sea makes it a natural waypoint for cables moving between the United States mainland and destinations further south and east. This geography has historically attracted cable investment, and the island's role as a US territory reinforces the commercial logic of routing significant traffic through its infrastructure.
For a jurisdiction of its size, the five-cable portfolio signals genuine strategic importance within Caribbean connectivity — a position that geography and geopolitics have reinforced over successive generations of cable building.