First fiber optic cable between Brazil and Europe

Installation of underwater fiber optic cable connecting Fortaleza and the city of Sines, in Portugal, had the process started by the company EllaLink this Monday morning (14), in Praia do Futuro.

With about six thousand kilometers, the cable will be the first to connect Brazil to Europe and arrives with the promise of high speed connectivity between the two continents.

Photo:
Helene Santos

According to the company’s Director of Operations, the Spanish Diego Matas, the connection will be able to provide a faster and more efficient data transfer. In addition, he points out, cable routing is just one part of a very complex infrastructure.

How does it work

“This system implemented by EllaLink is composed of this submarine cable, which is the main one, but it also has terrestrial fiber optic cables to take this connectivity to the Data Centers here in Brazil and Europe. This submarine part is 6,000 kilometers long, which means the shortest route between Europe and South America. Today, for example, data traffic is taken from South America to the United States, in a path that is twice as long with 12 thousand kilometers, and only after it goes to the European continent, what changes after this installation ”, points out when citing the installation process together with the changes.

In practice, he reiterates, the shortest passage between the two continents, more precisely between Brazil and Portugal, can be crucial for faster data between digital businesses, entertainment media, games, international banking transactions, etc.

“The delay in passing information is much lower between this distance. With the great capacity of this system, we are basically creating a completely new data corridor ”, he explains.

In addition, plans are to expand partners across the country. “We arrived here in Fortaleza with the cable, where we already have several partners to take advantage of this new connectivity, but we already have plans in conjunction with places like São Paulo and Argentina. In Europe, even with the connection in Sines, we have already expanded the operation to Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille ”, he says.

Cable routing

This Monday morning, divers and boats were on hand for the arrival of the cable to the sands of Praia do Futuro. On the ground, excavators carried out the cable anchoring process, responsible for initially offering 72Tbps of capacity in four pairs of fibers between Europe and Brazil.

The expectation, so far, is that the cable installation process is complete by the end of the first half of 2021.