Brazil and Europe will be connected by a new underwater fiber-optic cable with a capacity of 40 terabytes/second, which is expected to substantially facilitate telephone and image communications between different points in Brazil and Europe.

The information was reported by Carlos Oliveira, counselor for Digital Market with the European Union (EU) in Brazil. The EU has earmarked $30 million for project implementation.

The total sum to be invested in the undersea cable, however, has not been estimated yet, the counselor said, as it depends on an assessment underway by a consortium of firms, including Brazil’s state-controlled telecom giant Telebras. Eventually, the whole operation will be funded by an international consortium of banks.

Today

Brazil has a submarine cable named Atlantis 2, linking its territory to Europe. This cable, however, has a capacity of no more than 20 gigabytes—considerably far from being on a par with the humongous development in data transmission seen in recent years, especially considering the major strides made by video and image technology.

As a result of poor communication with Europe, Brazil is currently forced to use submarine cables linking Brazil to the US in order to transmit data (voice and image), and data must leave for other parts of the world, including Europe, from the US.

As it stands today, the US is a hub for the storage and distribution of Brazilian data. Specialists believe that the new submarine data will make data transmission from Brazil to the European continent more practical and affordable.

Advantages

Carlos Oliveira told Agência Brasil that the project aims to primarily benefit research institutes and universities in Brazil and other countries.

The counselor stressed that mobile lines may also be benefited, provided they show interest in expanding their communication capacities. “I’m convinced that Brazilian (mobile service) providers will be interested in this upgrade.”