A transatlantic submarine cable that will link Sines in Portugal, to Fortaleza in Brazil, representing an investment of €170 million, will see its first data transmission in late 2020.
The submarine cable will pass through Cape Verde and Madeira, installing a data transmission capacity of 73 terabits per second. The infrastructure, called Ellalink, will be implemented under the BELLA project (Building European Link to Latin America), which brings together the European and South American science networks, being funded by the European Commission and private funds.
“The installation of the EllaLink cable will enable the development of a new digital innovation hub in Sines,” mayor of Sines Nuno Mascarenhas said.
The EllaLink network directly connects Brazil and Europe linking the major hubs of São Paulo and Fortaleza with Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille. The EllaLink System is being built with state-of-the-art coherent technology initially offering 72Tbps of capacity over four fiber pairs.
Last September Google announced Equiano, a new private subsea cable that will connect Portugal and South Africa. The cable will be built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and the first phase of the project is scheduled for completion in 2021.
About Bella Project
BELLA (Building the Europe Link with Latin America) provides for the long-term interconnectivity needs of European and Latin American research and education communities. BELLA will achieve this through the procurement of a long-term Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) for spectrum on a submarine cable between the two regions, minimising latency. BELLA is also developing and deploying a 100Gbps-capable research and education network across Latin America. Funding for BELLA is provided by the European Union through three European Commission (EC) Directorates (DG-CONNECT, DG-DEVCO and DG-GROWTH) and by the Latin American NREN community.
