British firm Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) has become a founding member of a consortium to build a new submarine cable system that will boost broadband and pay TV in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

The Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS) will span 6,000 km from Jacksonville, Florida to Manta, Ecuador. The cable will have landing stations in the islands of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Aruba and Curacao, as well as Cartagena in Colombia and Maria Chiquita and Balboa in Panama, the telecommunications giant announced this week.

“The PCCS cable will add to the extensive subsea cable assets we have in the key corridor between North and South America and help us to meet the demand for good value, high quality international connectivity from telecom and pay TV companies in the Caribbean, Central and South America,” said Felix Camargo, COO of CWC Wholesale Solutions.

“PCCS will also help us to support increased broadband penetration and usage in the pan-American markets in which we operate,” he added.

Demand is growing rapidly across the pan-America region for online content such as tourism related services, sports coverage and digital TV. The 100 gigabit cable system will substantially increase the capacity for broadband services and international connectivity in the region as well as improving the reliability of telecommunications services, the company said.

Alcatel-Lucent has been chosen to deploy the cable. Work will start before the end of the year, with an expected commercial launch in the third quarter of 2014.

The other consortium members are Setar, Telconet, Telefonica Global Solutions and United Telecommunication Services.

With PCCS, CWC Wholesale Solutions will own or have capacity on 20 submarine cable systems in the region including CBUS, the East-West cable, PanAm, Maya and ECFS, and four diverse landings in the USA.