Wholesale telecommunications company GlobeNet has announced plans to extend its telecommunications network in Latin America by deploying a 2,500km submarine cable system linking Rio De Janeiro in Brazil with Buenos Aires (Argentina). The system will also provide onward connectivity to the US. The new cable system will significantly boost GlobeNet’s presence in the region, while complimenting its existing 23,500km GlobeNet fibre-optic cable system linking Brazil with Venezuela, Colombia, Bermuda and the US. Eduardo Falzoni, CEO of GlobeNet, said: ‘Our submarine cable, designed to satisfy low latency and high capacity demands, will be the first new route to provide direct connectivity from Argentina to Brazil and the United States since 2001 … As a result, individuals and enterprises in the Southern Cone will be able to enjoy unparalleled capabilities when streaming content, accessing cloud services and interconnecting with data centres all over the world.’ The new submarine system will feature state of the art technology and will connect GlobeNet’s cable landing station in Rio De Janeiro with the Argentine capital, via a landing point in Las Toninas, to the southeast of Buenos Aires.
European research network GEANT and its Latin American counterpart RedCLARA have inked an Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) contract with EllaLink (previously known as EulaLink) – a project aiming to provide a direct submarine fibre-optic cable between Europe and Latin America – for spectrum on the submarine cable. Procured on behalf of the BELLA Consortium, the IRU represents a key financial element in the building of the EllaLink cable, which is expected to be operational in late 2020. GEANT CEO Erik Huizer said: ‘I am delighted to see the culmination of work with our BELLA Consortium colleagues leading to the signature of the BELLA contract with EllaLink. Obtaining spectrum on an intercontinental submarine cable, which we can deploy and upgrade with our Latin American partners in line with research and education connectivity requirements, is a completely new model for our international connections, and will provide us with the flexibility and cost efficiencies we need to meet our users’ needs.’ As currently planned, EllaLink will bring 72Tbps of connectivity between the two continents. The 10,119km-long EllaLink will land at Sines in Portugal and at Praia Grande near Sao Paolo (Brazil), with branches to Fortaleza (Brazil), the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira and the island nation of Cape Verde. Brazilian state-owned telecoms infrastructure provider Telebras will have a 35% stake in the cable, while Spain’s IslaLink will hold 45%. The system will be deployed by Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) unit. Note that the only existing direct fibre-optic cable between Europe and Latin America, the ATLANTIS-2 (commissioned in late 1999), remains in service, although is based on ageing technology.
Permits from the US Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and several state and federal agencies for the deployment of a 58km submarine cable directly connecting Canada with the US via Lake Ontario have now been secured, with the rollout expected to commence shortly, The Buffalo News writes. The 96-fibre pair submarine cable network, which will land northwest of Lockport on the US shores and close to Toronto’s downtown core on the Canadian end, will be installed by IT International Telecom Canada. Crosslake Fibre will own and operate the system as an independent operator and will offer dark fibre and managed services to enterprise and carrier customers, as well as ultra-low latency services to financial networks. The submarine cable is part of a 131km network between Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, which is expected to be ready-for-service (RFS) by October 2018. Additionally, Crosslake Fibre has also announced plans for a submarine cable system, called Wall-LI, connecting cable landing stations in Wall (New Jersey) to Long Island (New York) with a RFS date of June 2019.
Telkom Kenya has launched its KES150 million (USD1.5 million) data centre in Nairobi, with three diverse fibre routes to the Westlands, GPO Nairobi and South-Hill Exchanges. Telkom CEO Aldo Mareuse said that the new data centre will provide access to national fibre backbone and metro capacities across the country.
We welcome your feedback about the Cable Compendium. If you have any questions, topic suggestions, or corrections, please email editors@commsupdate.com