Brazil is joining the “Humboldt” fiber-optic cable project, to lay the first subsea cable connecting South America with Oceania and Asia.
“By connecting South America with Oceania and Asia, the initiative will help increase the redundancy of the Brazilian connection to the global Internet, improving the availability and reliability of the system,” Brazil’s ministries of foreign affairs and communications said in a joint statement.
“In addition, it will let us increase the volume of data traffic in the country with the regions that have the highest growth in Internet demand in the world,” the statement added.
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A Chilean initiative, the 400-million-U.S.-dollar “Humboldt” project will be operated by a 25-year public-private concession.
The 14,810-kilometer cable, composed of eight optical fibers with an initial data transmission capacity of up to 400 gigabits per second (Gbps), will connect Valparaiso (Chile) with Sydney (Australia), passing through Auckland (New Zealand).
The connection from Australia to Asia is via five cables that are already in operation.
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The move joins similar Brazilian government initiatives, such as the tender for building the country’s 5G network, scheduled for mid-July, and connecting to Europe through the EllaLink subsea cable.
Argentina, Australia and New Zealand have said they are participating in the project.
