Columbus Networks
In September 2005‚ Columbus closed the acquisition of New World Network‚ and in April 2007 renamed the company Columbus Networks Limited.
Columbus Networks is a wholesale provider of advanced‚ high–speed bandwidth capacity, IP services, data center facilities and business solutions to telecommunications companies, Internet Service Providers and corporate clients.
Columbus Networks owns and operates Americas Region Caribbean Optical–ring System ("ARCOS")‚ a $450 million undersea broadband fiber–optic cable network. ARCOS is 8‚600 km in length and connects the United States with Central America‚ South America and the Caribbean. Specifically‚ ARCOS connects the United States with the Bahamas‚ Turks & Caicos‚ Dominican Republic‚ Puerto Rico‚ Curacao‚ Venezuela‚ Colombia‚ Panama‚ Costa Rica‚ Nicaragua‚ Honduras‚ Guatemala‚ Belize‚ and Mexico. Columbus Networks has extended its services to Ecuador and El Salvador.
Columbus Networks offers bandwidth and IP services from country–to–country‚ or office–to–office through ARCOS. Co–location space‚ interconnections‚ and other value–adding services are offered alongside these bandwidth products.
Since 2005, Columbus Networks has continued to expand its footprint and reach. Immediately upon closing the acquisition of New World Networks, Columbus embarked on an aggressive remediation plan designed to replace and upgrade segments of the subsea system that were particularly susceptible to damage from both acts of nature, fishing and shipping activity. It also invested heavily in solidifying all of its cable stations in the region, upgrading cooling, fire suppression, security and back up power systems.
In March 2006, shortly after rebranding the company, Columbus Networks, a new cable system connecting Jamaica to ARCOS via the Dominican Republic was placed into service. In October 2007, Columbus completed the construction of a $40 million subsea link connecting Trinidad and Bonaire to the ARCOS network via Curacao. Then in August 2008, Columbus Networks launched service on the first undersea fiber-optic cable express route that directly linked Colombia with Florida, an $80 million project that opened a new gateway for the Caribbean and Latin America Region into North and South America.
Over the same period, Columbus has completed countless upgrades to both its capacity and IP platforms. Since 2005, Columbus has increased its lit capacity from 15GB to 650GB and upgraded its IP platform from 1GB to 200GB. In concert with these network upgrades, Columbus expanded the reach of its network by aggressively extending from the shoreline into the regions city centers. Terrestrial network investments have been made in Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Guatemala and Honduras, to name a few.
All told, Columbus Networks has invested some $475 million since being folded under the Columbus umbrella in the Fall of 2005 and over the same period of time has grown its team of talented telecommunications team from 35 to close to 525 professionals.