Murdeira, Cape Verde

Murdeira, Cape Verde: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Murdeira is a village on the western coast of the island of Sal, in Cape Verde, an archipelago nation in the central Atlantic Ocean. Situated approximately 9 kilometres south of Espargos and 10 kilometres north of Santa Maria, Murdeira occupies a position along Sal's main north–south highway corridor. As a submarine cable landing point, Murdeira connects to Cape Verde's domestic inter-island network, serving as one of ten landing points spread across the archipelago.

One submarine cable comes ashore at Murdeira: the Cabo Verde Telecom Domestic Submarine Cable Phase 1. This cable forms part of the intra-archipelago infrastructure that links the islands of Cape Verde to one another, enabling domestic connectivity across a geographically dispersed island nation. The corridor this cable represents is purely inter-island in nature, with all endpoints located within Cape Verde itself.

Cables Landing at Murdeira, Cape Verde

The Cabo Verde Telecom Domestic Submarine Cable Phase 1 reached ready-for-service status in 1997, making it the earliest cable in Cape Verde's submarine network. All endpoints of this cable are located within Cape Verde, confirming its role as a domestic inter-island link. The cable connects the islands of the archipelago to one another rather than reaching outward to continental or international destinations. No length data is available for this cable system.

Regional Context

Among the ten submarine cable landing points in Cape Verde, Murdeira ranks alongside Nova Sintra as a single-cable landing point, placing it in the lower tier by cable count. The busiest landing point in the country is Praia, which hosts five cables, followed by São Pedro with three and Porto Novo, Sal Rei, and Tarrafal de Santiago each with two. Murdeira's position on the island of Sal nonetheless contributes to the overall geographic distribution of the domestic cable network across the archipelago.

Network Role

Murdeira functions as a single-cable terminus within Cape Verde's domestic submarine cable graph. Its sole connection, the Cabo Verde Telecom Domestic Submarine Cable Phase 1, serves the inter-island corridor rather than any international or intercontinental route. This positions Murdeira exclusively within the domestic layer of Cape Verde's submarine infrastructure, distinct from landing points such as Praia or São Pedro that participate in international cable systems.

As one of ten landing points distributed across the Cape Verde archipelago, Murdeira on Sal island represents a node that extends the domestic network's geographic reach into the central islands. Its presence ensures that the inter-island cable system touches Sal, an island that is otherwise reliant on this single submarine landing for its place in the national subsea connectivity map.