Brazilian state-owned telecommunications provider Telebras has signed an agreement with Angola Cables to deploy a 6,000-kilometer submarine cable linking Fortaleza in Brazil to Luanda in Angola. According Telebras’s president Caio Bonilha, the goal is for the submarine cable to be operational in the first half of 2014 in order to improve data traffic during the World Cup football tournament in Brazil.
Telebras estimates that the new cable will reduce the cost of internet output from Brazil and other countries in South America by 80% for Asia and Africa. Data traffic among these countries will no longer have to pass through Europe and the U.S., as happens today.
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The size of the investment in the works has not yet been announced, though some studies estimate the cost to be approximately U.S. $140 million to U.S. $200 million.
The cable should be ready by the first half of 2014. Studies for the launch of the first submarine cable linking the two continents began in November 2011. According to Brazil’s Minister of Communications, Paulo Bernardo, the initiative will reduce the cost of telecommunication connections as well as facilitate cultural adaptation and strengthen cultural ties between the two continents.
The Angola’s Deputy Minister for Telecommunications, Aristides Safeca, stressed that the launch of the submarine cable is among the main projects developed jointly between the two countries.
Next steps include the definition of an international tender to select the company to carry out the project, which may take place in June this year. The cable construction should take about eighteen months.
