A group of 11 European and Latin American research and educational networks have signed an agreement to build an underwater fiber optic cable in the Atlantic Ocean connecting Europe and Latin America, the European Commission said on Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2018) A group of 11 European and Latin American research and educational networks have signed an agreement to build an underwater fiber optic cable in the Atlantic Ocean connecting Europe and Latin America, the European Commission said on Monday.
"The cable will be operational in 2020 and will provide reliable high capacity connectivity to boost scientific and cultural exchanges as well as business. It is additionally a step forward in the creation of an EU-Latin America common research area. Construction of the cable will start as soon as the contract enters into force in the coming months," the commission said in a press release.
The commission was going to invest around 26.5 million Euros (some $30.2 million) in the project, alongside with a group of public stakeholders from the Building Europe Link to Latin America (BELLA) consortium, the press service added.
EU and Latin American heads of states and governments have repeatedly expressed their support for direct high capacity links between the two continents. The initiative was agreed on during the EU-Brazil summit in 2014. The cable, dubbed Ellalink, will run between Portugal and Brazil, but it is expected that the digital highway will be further extended into the two continents.
