Butler Bay, Virgin Islands (U.S.)

Butler Bay, Virgin Islands (U.S.): Submarine Cable Landing Point

Butler Bay is a submarine cable landing point located in the United States Virgin Islands, a Caribbean territory situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The landing point hosts one submarine cable, TAM-1, which is scheduled to enter service in 2026. As part of the broader U.S. Virgin Islands cable infrastructure — which spans ten landing points and eight submarine cables — Butler Bay represents one of the territory's newer additions to its undersea connectivity network.

The TAM-1 cable connects Butler Bay to six countries across Central America and northern South America, establishing a corridor that links the U.S. Virgin Islands to Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. This makes Butler Bay a terminus on a cable system oriented primarily toward the Central American isthmus and the northwestern coast of South America, enabling direct submarine connectivity between the Caribbean and the Pacific-facing nations of that region.

Cables Landing at Butler Bay, Virgin Islands (U.S.)

TAM-1 is a 7,200-kilometer submarine cable system with a ready-for-service date of 2026. In addition to Butler Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands, TAM-1 connects to landing points in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. The cable spans a considerable length across the Caribbean and along the Central American coastline, forming a multi-country system that ties together a corridor of seven distinct national territories.

Regional Context

Among the ten submarine cable landing points in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Butler Bay sits alongside peers of varying scale. St. Croix leads the territory with five cables, while Great Bay hosts two. Butler Bay, Banana Bay, Brewer's Bay, Christiansted, and Flamingo Bay each host a single cable, placing Butler Bay within a group of single-cable landing points that collectively expand the territory's geographic distribution of undersea connectivity. The addition of TAM-1 at Butler Bay extends the U.S. Virgin Islands' reach toward the Central American corridor.

Network Role

Butler Bay functions as a single-cable terminus, serving as the U.S. Virgin Islands endpoint of the TAM-1 system. Through this cable, Butler Bay connects the territory directly to six countries spanning Central America and northern South America — a corridor not served by any of the other U.S. Virgin Islands landing points based on TAM-1's distinct country set. This positions Butler Bay as a geographically specialized landing point within the territory's broader submarine network.

When TAM-1 enters service in 2026, Butler Bay will add a new international link to the U.S. Virgin Islands' submarine cable map, one oriented specifically toward the Central American isthmus rather than the transatlantic or inter-island routes served by other landing points in the territory. In the regional submarine cable graph, this makes Butler Bay the sole U.S. Virgin Islands node on the TAM-1 path connecting the Caribbean to the Pacific-adjacent nations of Central America and Colombia.