Liberty Networks is positioning its subsequent growth cycle round a well-recognized asset – subsea cables – however with a sharper concentrate on ecosystem scale, AI-driven demand and a extra assertive push into enterprise and authorities companies.
Throughout a roundtable on the firm’s Hyperlinks occasion, in Mexico, Carmine Sorrentino, chief industrial and working officer, Ray Collins, senior vp of infrastructure and company technique at Liberty Latin America, and Danilo Fernandes, vp and chief industrial officer B2B LatAm at Liberty Networks, supplied updates on infrastructure, enterprise growth and the influence of AI on connectivity demand.
The corporate, executives mentioned, isn’t just constructing new infrastructure, however layering it onto an already in depth regional footprint to defend its place towards hyperscalers and new entrants.
The timing issues.
Site visitors growth on the firm’s techniques stays robust at low-20% yearly, pushed more and more by knowledge facilities and AI workloads, whereas governments throughout Latin America are reassessing digital sovereignty, resilience and connectivity gaps.
Three cables, three phases – and one technique
Liberty claims to be on observe with its core projects.
The Maya 1.2 improve – primarily a refurbishment of the legacy Maya 1 system coupled with new stretches – is nearing completion, mentioned Collins in reply to BNamericas. The system is anticipated to ship fast good points in capability, latency and routing effectivity, notably by concentrating visitors flows into Mexico and the US.
On the identical time, Manta, its flagship newbuild system, has moved into manufacturing.
For Manta, Liberty is sustaining its earlier timetable of end-2027 to early-2028 for go-live, though some segments may enter service earlier relying on whether or not the corporate decides to gentle up the northern or southern sections forward of the complete system.
Sorrentino added that work on Manta is advancing in parallel on a number of fronts.
He famous that Liberty Networks has already secured touchdown preparations in McAllen Information Heart for the 2 landings in Mexico, secured touchdown in San Blas in northwest Florida, is upgrading the ability in North Miami Seaside the place the cable will land on the US east coast, is working with Sparkle on the Panama touchdown, and can also be advancing a brand new web site in Cartagena for one more touchdown level.
“All of the touchdown[s] shall be new besides Miami Seaside,” Sorrentino mentioned, noting that Liberty can reuse present infrastructure within the US as a result of it already has two touchdown stations there.
On Maya 1.2, Sorrentino confused the mission entails the refurbishment of the outdated Maya 1 cable, with the work anticipated to be finalized within the coming weeks.
He mentioned that the unique consortium construction across the cable now not exists because it did earlier than – and the companions that stay are planning to keep the cable going ahead.
Maya 1.2 is ready to improve capability and enhance routing for a number of markets. Collins mentioned Honduras will join into Mexico and from there into Liberty’s broader techniques towards the US, slightly than counting on longer paths farther south.
Lastly, the El Salvador-Panama project, ES-1, introduced within the first quarter of this 12 months, remains to be within the desktop survey stage.
Governments more and more curious about shorter, sovereign routes
Requested whether or not the El Salvador mission alerts a broader pattern of shorter, festoon-like government-backed routes, Collins mentioned he believes so.
He mentioned international locations are actually reassessing each what infrastructure already exists and what new funding is required, particularly as visitors growth accelerates. In El Salvador’s case, the nation had relied closely on terrestrial worldwide connectivity by means of Honduras and Guatemala, slightly than having its personal direct submarine exit.
“El Salvador didn’t have any. It’s truly the primary submarine fiber cable that they ever had,” Collins mentioned, referring to direct subsea infrastructure.
He argued that submarine techniques provide higher resilience than terrestrial routes, the place cable cuts are far more widespread. Whereas submarine cuts are comparatively uncommon and normally linked to incidents reminiscent of ships anchoring within the flawed place, terrestrial cuts happen often due to building, roadworks and different disruptions.
In accordance to Sorrentino, these shorter subsea sections take advantage of sense when built-in right into a broader ecosystem of cables and terrestrial property, slightly than as remoted techniques.
He additionally pointed to Mexico for instance of how these architectures can create extra resilience.
Manta’s branches into Cancún and Veracruz successfully create a home path between these two factors, which might serve instead route in case of failures elsewhere, even when its latency is considerably greater as a result of the route is farther offshore.
Dominican Republic and the Cayman tender
Requested in regards to the significance of the Dominican Republic, executives mentioned it stands as the corporate’s second-largest enterprise market after Colombia.
Collins mentioned the nation provides robust financial growth, a secure forex, stable rule of legislation and one of many Caribbean’s largest populations, making it strategically essential for Liberty Networks.
Questioned by BNamericas, he added that Google’s not too long ago introduced investment within the Dominican Republic needs to be seen much less as a risk than as a possible catalyst.
The executives additionally confirmed Liberty Networks is actively collaborating within the Cayman Islands subsea cable bidding process, which has already moved previous a preliminary choice part.
operators have obtained the tender paperwork and are getting ready proposals, with a public determination anticipated by end-Could.
Integration
Individually, Liberty’s new techniques and upgrades are incremental initiatives. Taken collectively, mentioned Collins, they illustrate a broader technique: densify and interconnect the regional community, slightly than depend on remoted, point-to-point builds.
That is the place Liberty believes it has a structural benefit. New techniques are being deployed on prime of a base of 17 present subsea techniques, mentioned Collins, permitting the operator to provide redundancy, routing flexibility and resiliency that within the firm’s view standalone initiatives battle to match.
That positioning is essential as competitors intensifies—not simply from conventional telecom gamers and builders reminiscent of Trans Americas Fiber Systems and Telconet, however from hyperscalers constructing their very own infrastructure.
Hyperscalers not the enemy—however they’re altering the principles
Questioned by BNamericas, executives struck a realistic tone on competitors from corporations like Google and Meta, that are more and more deploying proprietary cables and knowledge middle infrastructure.
On main intercontinental routes—reminiscent of Chile–Los Angeles, or Brazil-US East Coast—hyperscalers have sufficient visitors to justify constructing their very own techniques, mentioned Collins. However in Central America, the Caribbean and smaller markets, visitors volumes are nonetheless higher suited to carrier-led infrastructure.
This creates a twin dynamic: hyperscalers are each prospects and rivals.
Liberty’s response is to double down on segments the place its regional integration issues most, in what executives described because the “bridge” between the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America.
On the identical time, guaranteeing its techniques are engaging for hyperscaler redundancy and spillover demand.
Public sector rising as a second growth engine
Liberty Networks can also be rising concentrate on authorities purchasers, which executives see as a medium-term growth driver.
As we speak, public-sector enterprise represents lower than 10% of enterprise revenues below Liberty Networks. The corporate is concentrating on 20%-25% inside 5 years, mentioned Fernandes, answerable for this space.
Liberty Networks’ enterprise enterprise is concentrated in 5 markets: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Liberty can also be in search of to place itself throughout a broader B2B worth chain that features: cloud and ICT companies, supported by a newly introduced AWS partnership; built-in options with distributors reminiscent of Oracle, Cisco and Fortinet; and potential turn-key initiatives, the place it acts as a chief contractor, marketing consultant and integrator on nationwide digital infrastructure.
Fernandes highlighted Colombia for instance, noting that Liberty Networks is now included within the nation’s contrato macro, permitting it to promote core companies to the federal government there.
AI is accelerating demand, however compressing timelines
Executives have been express that AI is already reshaping community demand, primarily by means of knowledge middle visitors.
“The visitors from knowledge facilities is what’s driving the rise,” Collins mentioned, noting that Liberty is including report ranges of capability each quarter.
However the extra consequential shift could also be operational.
Not like earlier know-how waves, AI is compressing the timeframe for disruption. The place the web took roughly 20 years to absolutely reshape industries, AI is transferring a lot quicker—creating stress on each infrastructure planning, tools availability and workforce adaptation.
For operators, that interprets into shorter planning cycles however longer provide chains.
Tools lead instances that have been as soon as three months now stretch to 12 months, forcing earlier capital commitments and extra exact demand forecasting, in accordance to Collins and Sorrentino.
Latin America’s window could also be opening
Lastly, regardless of international instability, Liberty executives expressed a comparatively bullish view on Latin America’s positioning.
Liberty Latin America has 11 data centers in whole, of which 5 belong to Liberty Networks. These are situated throughout markets together with Panama, Colombia, Miami and Curaçao.
International locations reminiscent of Chile, Brazil and Mexico are already attracting knowledge middle funding, benefiting from a mixture of vitality availability, coverage frameworks and connectivity entry.
On the identical time, geopolitical shifts – together with tensions in different areas – may push extra funding towards the Western Hemisphere.
The implication is that Latin America’s position in international digital infrastructure might develop, however erratically. Markets with coastal entry, dependable energy and clear regulatory frameworks are seemingly to pull forward, mentioned Collins.
In the end, Liberty’s technique is much less about constructing essentially the most cables.
By integrating new techniques like Manta with present property, anchoring initiatives with associate visitors and increasing into higher-value enterprise and authorities companies, the corporate is making an attempt to transfer up the worth chain whereas defending its core wholesale enterprise.
The problem shall be execution.
Hyperscalers will proceed to construct the place it is smart. New entrants will check enterprise circumstances in underserved routes. And AI-driven demand, whereas robust, can also be risky and uneven throughout markets.
However for now, Liberty is betting that scale, integration and regional depth – slightly than pure capability – will outline the winners in Latin America’s subsequent connectivity cycle.
(The unique model of this content material was written in English)
