Bermuda will reap legacy benefits as a result of major telecommunication infrastructure and service upgrades needed for the America’s Cup.

It is estimated the island will use as much international data capacity during the month-long event as it normally would in an entire year.

Faced with an anticipated ramping up in demand of such magnitude, the island’s telecommunication companies, providers and contractors have stepped up to the challenge.

Multimillion dollar projects to improve mobile phone, data and internet capacity that ordinarily might have taken many years to be put in place, have instead landed in the fast lane.

In the short-term it means when the eyes of the world descend on Bermuda in May and June for the America’s Cup, the island will have the technological infrastructure to meet the demands of competing teams, thousands of additional visitors, and media organisers, including international broadcasters.

But there will also be significant long-term benefits for Bermuda as many of the improvements for which the America’s Cup acted as a catalyst will remain in place as a lasting legacy.

Among the spin-offs will be new submarine cable linking Spanish Point to the east end and the harbour. This will expand the local network and create a loop for data communications to be able to switch direction, effectively “self-healing”, when there is a disruption.

Fiona Beck, chairwoman of the ACBDA telecommunications committee, said this would give the island greater resilience should the fibre cable be cut or damaged during a hurricane, or as a result of a mishap, such as a utility pole toppling.

Also, the long distance submarine communications cable Challenger, one of three that carry data communications between the island and the US, is being significantly upgraded to handle vastly more traffic.

Previously, it was configured to carry 20 gigabytes per second, but this is being enhanced to a higher level. The cable is capable of 320GB.

The larger capacity will help ensure the island can handle the major bump in international data usage that will come during the America’s Cup.

Once that extra capacity upgrade is switched on, it will remain available for Bermuda after the America’s Cup.

The subsea link is owned by One Communications subsidiary Cable Co, and the multimillion dollar upgrade is expected to be completed this week.

Explaining the change, Ms Beck said the network was being upgraded to the next level, pointing out that it had taken seven years for Bermuda to reach the previously available 20GB capacity of that subsea link.

Ms Beck said that with sports tourism growing, and Bermuda set to host a series of international triathlons in the next three years, the additional international data capacity would be in place for future use by those events.

On land, One Communications and Digicel are currently carrying out major internet and fibre cable upgrades.

“These are initiatives the America’s Cup has caused to be enhanced and brought forward,” said Ms Beck.

The ACBDA said there will be significant managed spectrum for the boat telemetry, radio and broadcast signals needed by America’s Cup teams and others.

When Bermuda hosted the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in Hamilton in October 2015 there was no LTE, or 4G, mobile phone network available. Since then, One Communications and Digicel have rolled out 4G services to provide faster connections.

Both companies are installing temporary, mobile cell sites to further boost coverage during the America’s Cup.

With possibly 1,000 spectator and team boats in the Great Sound streaming data from mobile devices, the two local telecommunication companies have built up their 4G networks and planned additional cell sites to meet the expected demand.

The companies will monitor networks to identify and solve cellular traffic congestion during the event. This will include having people in boats with equipment to check signal strength and identify stresses and strains on the networks.

The America’s Cup village at Dockyard is being fitted with free public wi-fi. Ms Beck said: “People will doing things with their phones and devices, sharing photos on social media.”

She said there would be opportunities to redeploy that wi-fi infrastructure after the America’s Cup is over.

During the past two years, One Communications, Digicel, CCS, TBi, Challenger Cable, East End Telecom, Fireminds, Wow, and other contractors have been involved in making the improvements.

“They have been working on what we are going to need for the America’s Cup, and what we are going to need for the next generation,” said Ms Beck.

“The companies have stepped up. We are very pleased with the response. It has taken two years to get to this point.”

In the final weeks before the America’s Cup, there will be simulated exercises to test the various networks.

Ms Beck said: “We will be ready for the America’s Cup, and we are ready for the new Bermuda. So much has been done, that this of course improves the infrastructure for Bermuda’s long term benefit.”