Chile’s transport and communications ministry MTT has published the bidding rules for a feasibility study for a proposed fiber optic submarine cable that would connect Asia with Latin America. The US$3mn study, which will be financed by Latin American development bank CAF, aims to research the technical, legal, financial and economic parameters of the project, which would involve 24,000km of cabling, throughput capacity of 10-20Tbps over 4-8 pairs, an estimated US$650mn to build and be run as a public-private consortium for 25-30 years.

MTT Minister said the project had the potential to position Chile as a connectivity hub for the region, or what the government has called a digital hub, and a prime destination for datacenters. Consultations on the bidding rules will be received from July 15-26 and responded to on August 1. The bid submission deadline is August 16 and the contract will be awarded on September 2.