Telebras, Brazil's state-run service provider, this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IslaLink to build a submarine cable network between Europe and South America.
This latest proposed project is one of five cables the service provider is planning to build.
Set to be built by a consortium of public and private companies, the total 24,000 km worth of cabling would cost about BRL 1.8 billion (USD 900 million), according to Telebras. Each of the five routes will be managed and run by separate consortiums.
Upon completion, four of the cables will provide connectivity between Brazil, the United States, Europe and Africa with the fifth cable being used to expand Telebras' national backbone.
According to a BNAmericas report, the cable link between Fortaleza and Africa, which is being built with partner Angola Cables, is nearly complete.
The Europe to South America link follows a proposal Telebras made in July to build out a submarine cable linking the United States with the northeast Brazilian city of Fortaleza. However, it has not determined a U.S. landing site yet.
What's driving Telebras to create these new routes is to not only reduce network latency, especially for Internet traffic within Latin America, but also to lower Internet connectivity prices.
Establishing links betweeen Brazil and other international countries has become a growing and attractive trend for various service providers to assist large multinational business customers that are locating offices there and other carriers that need access to the region.
Besides Telebras, Seaborn Networks, an emerging submarine player earlier this year announced a plan to build Seabras-1, a 32-Tbps submarine cable that will provide what it says the first direct route between Sao Paulo and the United States.
For more:
- BNAmericas has this article
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