GÉANT and RedCLARA, the Latin American Research and Education Network, have entered into an Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) contract with EllaLink, for spectrum on a direct submarine cable connecting Europe and Latin America.
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the research and education community.
The transatlantic capacity was procured on behalf of the Building the Europe Link with Latin America (BELLA) Consortium. Beneficiaries include the European and Latin American research and education communities for the next quarter of a century, in areas such as astronomy, particle physics, and earth observation. With funding from the European Union (EU) and the Latin American NREN community, the IRU represents a key financial element in the building of the EllaLink cable, which is expected to be operational in late 2020.
Erik Huizer, GÉANT CEO 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. It will be exciting to watch the deployment of a submarine cable at close hand and we look forward to seeing bits between GÉANT and RedCLARA being exchanged for the first time on a physically direct path between the two continents in 2020”.
Luis Eliécer Cadenas, Executive Director of RedCLARA, and co-chair of the BELLA Consortium, said, “This milestone is a key achievement for the Latin American research and education community. We are opening a direct collaboration channel with Europe, guaranteeing security and quality of service for the many scientific and educational applications that we expect to offer. RedCLARA is engaged in building the data communications infrastructure for research and education that will foster regional development. The BELLA subsea cable is a first stone in building this capacity”.
EllaLink submarine cable system to connect Brazil to Europe
EMACOM - Telecomunicações da Madeira - announced the signing of a contract to develop the system with direct links to the islands of Madeira. The expected ready-for-service is 2020.
EllaLink will be a 3 fiber pair systems linking Southern Europe (Sines – Lisbon – Madrid) to LATAM (Fortaleza – Sao Paulo). Three intermediate branches are also being planned to land in Cabo Verde, the Canary Islands and Madeira. The main section of the cable traveling from Sines to Fortaleza is approximately 5900 km.
http://www.eulalink.com
http://www.eem.pt
