Machico, Portugal

Machico, Portugal: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Machico is a city and municipality located in the southeast of the island of Madeira, part of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. As an island location, Machico's position as a submarine cable landing point connects Madeira into the broader regional cable network. One submarine cable lands at Machico, establishing this city as an emerging node in Portugal's submarine cable infrastructure.

The cable landing here, the New CAM Ring, is notable for linking Portuguese territories across the Atlantic. With Madeira being an island, submarine cables are the sole means of providing high-capacity fixed connectivity to the mainland and other Portuguese island groups, making Machico's role in this intra-Portuguese ring particularly relevant.

Cables Landing at Machico

The New CAM Ring is the only submarine cable currently landing at Machico. Spanning 3,812 kilometres, the cable has a readiness-for-service date of 2026 and is currently at the draft stage. All other endpoints on the New CAM Ring are also located in Portugal, making this an intra-national ring system connecting Portuguese territories. The cable's name and structure suggest it forms a ring architecture serving the Canaries-Azores-Madeira corridor — all of which fall under Portuguese or Spanish sovereignty — though the confirmed endpoints in the available facts identify Portugal as the sole national participant.

Regional Context

Portugal hosts 21 submarine cables across 19 landing points, with more established hubs including Carcavelos (8 cables), Sesimbra (5 cables), Funchal (4 cables), and Sines (4 cables). With a single cable, Machico ranks in the top 53% of Portuguese landing points by cable count. Ponta Delgada and São Miguel, both also island landing points in the Azores, each host three cables, giving them a broader direct connectivity profile than Machico at present.

Network Role

Machico functions as a single-cable terminus at this stage, with the New CAM Ring set to bring Madeira's southeast into a Portuguese intra-island or inter-territory ring network upon the cable's completion in 2026. Because the New CAM Ring connects exclusively to other Portuguese endpoints, Machico's role is regional and domestic in scope rather than intercontinental. The cable's ring architecture is designed to provide route diversity between Portuguese Atlantic territories.

Within the broader Portuguese submarine cable graph, Machico represents a secondary but growing node. As an island municipality dependent on subsea infrastructure for fixed long-distance connectivity, the addition of the New CAM Ring positions Machico as a distinct landing point on Madeira separate from the island's more established hub at Funchal, adding geographic resilience to Madeira's overall cable footprint.