- The Canary Islands depend directly on these submarine cables to guarantee their connectivity and are fundamental for their economic, social and digital development
- With this action, the Government wants to ensure the modernization of these networks and reaffirms its commitment to territorial cohesion, digital transformation and the strengthening of the competitiveness of all territories.
The Council of Ministers today approved a direct grant of 4.8 million euros for the project to expand the Canalink Base 4 submarine system through a new branch that will connect with the south of Fuerteventura.
“The extension of this submarine cable will strengthen the connectivity of Fuerteventura, providing greater redundancy in the south of the island and strengthening the security of the telecommunications network. With this action, the Government reaffirms its commitment to territorial cohesion, digital transformation and strengthening the competitiveness of all territories,” said the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López.
The Canary Islands depend directly on these submarine cables to guarantee their connectivity and are fundamental for their economic, social and digital development. The government wants to ensure the modernization of these networks. This subsidy will therefore serve the objective of social and territorial structuring, by combating the digital divide that affects the coverage of networks in an outermost and insular area.
This project was presented to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). In the area of digital connectivity infrastructures, the CEF promotes, among others, the deployment of electronic communications backbone networks, including submarine cables that connect European territories to third countries on other continents or that connect islands, outermost regions, as this is the case.
In the event that there are projects that are beyond the evaluation phase, but cannot be financed due to lack of budget, CEF plans to grant the “Seal of Excellence” certification recommending its financing through other sources. This project has received the Seal of Excellence from the European Commission, which justifies the exceptional granting of direct aid.