Galapagos Cable Systems (GCS) and Xtera announced plans to construct a new subsea cable to the Galapagos Islands from Ecuador. The project has been in development since 2018 and the 1,280 km cable system is expected to go live in 2022 with a full design capacity of 20 Tbps, which is 2,500 times the current available bandwidth within the region. The system is expected to enable further scientific research, commerce, tourism and education within the region and supply the Galapagos with high capacity telecommunications services, fixed and mobile as well as broadband internet in preparation for 5G in the future. Xtera will design and build the turnkey system using their SDM repeater, with Prysmian/NSW supplying the cable and IT International Telecom delivering on the marine installation.