On November 26, the Government of the Republic of Portugal took two decisive steps to ensure the future of electronic communications in the Autonomous Region of the Azores by publishing Council of Ministers Resolutions No. 184/2025 and No. 185/2025 in the Official Gazette.

The resolutions mandate Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), S.A., to develop the new “Anel Açores” submarine cable system and authorize the signing of a sub-concession contract, worth €155.865 million, for the exploration, operation, and maintenance of the Atlantic CAM system, which connects the mainland to the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira.

Currently, communications between mainland Portugal and the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are provided by a submarine cable system of approximately 3,700 kilometers, considered “absolutely essential” to ensure the autonomous regions’ access to digital networks.

However, the useful life of these cables is coming to an end: the section between the mainland and the Azores will reach obsolescence in 2024, the mainland-Madeira segment in 2025, and the Azores-Madeira cable is expected to reach the end of its cycle in 2028, which has led the government to classify its replacement as urgent.

Within the Azores archipelago, the nine islands currently depend on two submarine cable systems belonging to the Altice Group, which interconnect and form the current “inter-island ring”: a first cable, installed in 1998, connecting Santa Maria, São Miguel, Terceira, São Jorge, Faial, Pico, and Graciosa, and a second, in operation since 2014, serving Flores and Corvo. In 2023, the submarine component of the 1998 system reached its estimated useful life of 25 years, posing an increased risk of mechanical failure and making the replacement of the Azores cable ring a “priority and fundamental” task to ensure economic and social cohesion and correct inequalities resulting from insularity.

It is in this context that Resolution No. 184/2025 emerges, mandating Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), S. A., to develop studies that will support the contracting and implementation of the new “Azores Ring” Submarine Cable Project, ensuring interconnection with the Atlantic CAM system.

IP must present its conclusions to the members of the Government of the Republic responsible for Finance and sectoral oversight by the end of the first quarter of 2027, defining the management and operating model, the infrastructure ownership regime, and the possible concession to IP itself, with a sub-concession to IP Telecom, S.A., in coordination with Atlantic CAM.

The study will have to assess costs, benefits, and the impact on wholesale service provision conditions, including network architecture, the number of fiber pairs, redundancy of moorings, security solutions, and the integration of SMART technology, which combines telecommunications with seismic and environmental monitoring. It should also ensure compatibility with existing cables, analyze different access modalities (fiber pairs, wavelengths, capacity), and identify sources of financing, with potential recourse to European Union funds, such as the Connecting Europe Facility – Digital. For this preparatory work, the Government of the Republic authorizes IP to incur expenditure up to a maximum total amount of 1,000,000 euros, plus VAT. The costs are divided into €950,000 in 2026 and €50,000 in 2027, with national funding being reduced if additional European support is obtained.

The future operation of the “Azores Ring” system should be exclusively wholesale, on open and non-discriminatory terms, ensuring interconnection with the Atlantic CAM and the current cable system, and complying with national and European standards for network security, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure protection. The governance of the data collected by the sensors integrated into the cables will remain under the control of the Portuguese State, for reasons of national defense.

At the same time, Resolution No. 185/2025 implements the external arm of this design by authorizing Infraestruturas de Portugal to assume the multi-year costs of a sub-concession contract with IP Telecom for the exploitation, operation, and maintenance of Atlantic CAM, for a total amount of 155,865,135 euros, plus VAT. The agreement covers the period from 2027 to 2052, with annual payments starting at €4,028,579 in 2027, rising progressively to a peak of €8,651,519 in 2046, and then falling to €1,049,105 in 2052, for an average of slightly less than €6 million per year.

The amounts set for each financial year may be reinforced with any positive balance recorded in the previous year, and all costs will be borne by Infraestruturas de Portugal’s own revenues, not directly depending on the State Budget. Under these conditions, the Government seeks to ensure the installation and management of a new generation of submarine cables with greater transmission capacity and new features, including seismic detection, environmental monitoring, support for the surveillance of submarine activity in the Exclusive Economic Zone, and the interconnection of scientific networks.

For the Azores, the package now approved consolidates two strategic axes: on the one hand, the replacement of the aging “inter-island ring,” strengthening digital autonomy and the resilience of communications between the nine islands; on the other, the full integration of the Region into the large international Atlantic CAM cable corridor, which connects the archipelago to the mainland, Madeira, and future international connections, with the potential to attract digital platforms and data centers. The challenge now lies in how quickly Infraestruturas de Portugal will complete the studies for the “Azores Ring” and in the ability to mobilize European funding so that the new submarine network can be installed before a serious failure occurs in the cables that have sustained the daily digital lives of the Azoreans for more than two decades.

In Diário dos Açores-Paulo Viveiros, director

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.