Caldera, Chile

How the Internet Reaches Caldera, Chile

Caldera is a coastal city in northern Chile, situated along the Pacific shoreline roughly midway between the capital Santiago and the far northern port of Arica. Its position on Chile's long, narrow Pacific coast places it within reach of the submarine cable infrastructure that runs along this coastline, connecting a series of Chilean cities from north to south.

International and domestic internet traffic reaches Caldera through a single submarine cable, the Prat cable, which lands directly at the city. Unlike major hubs such as Valparaíso - which aggregates five separate cables - Caldera is served exclusively by this one system. The Prat cable is a domestic Chilean cable, meaning its connectivity links Caldera to other points along Chile's own coastline rather than to foreign countries.

The Cable Serving Caldera

The Prat cable spans 3,500 km and entered service in 2020 on a draft basis. It connects Caldera to five other Chilean landing points: Antofagasta, Arica, Cartagena, Constitución, and Iquique. Together, these landings trace a route along Chile's Pacific coast, linking northern cities such as Arica and Iquique through Caldera and Antofagasta, continuing southward to Cartagena and Constitución. The cable is entirely domestic in scope, serving as a coastal link between Chilean population centres rather than bridging Chile to other nations.

Regional Context

Chile hosts six submarine cables across 14 landing points, with an average cable length of 7,208 km - reflecting the country's connections to distant international systems as well as shorter coastal routes like Prat. Caldera sits among the smaller terminuses in Chile's cable map, served by a single cable. By comparison, Valparaíso leads the country with five cable landings, and Arica holds three. Caldera shares its single-cable status with fellow Prat landings Antofagasta, Cartagena, and Constitución, all of which are connected solely through this one system.

What This Means for Connectivity

Because Caldera is served by only the Prat cable, all submarine-routed traffic to and from the city flows through this single system. An outage on the Prat cable would sever Caldera's submarine link to every other landing point it connects with - Antofagasta, Arica, Cartagena, Constitución, and Iquique. The traffic carried is inter-city and coastal in nature, supporting connectivity between Chilean communities along the Pacific seaboard rather than providing direct international reach.

For users in Caldera, onward access to international internet infrastructure depends on routing through other nodes in Chile's broader network, particularly hubs with international cable connections. Understanding Caldera's position - as a single-cable, domestically oriented terminus on a coastal system - illustrates how Chile's submarine infrastructure combines long-haul international cables concentrated at major hubs with shorter coastal links serving regional centres.