wiredinUSA July

INDEX

Interest in BRICS cable

Investors are sought for the BRICS cable, an undersea broadband cable that will link Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (the BRICS countries) to each other and the US. “There have beenmany parties showing interest in the BRICS cable project. To date, a total of ten non-disclosure agreements have been signed by global and South African telecom- munication operators,” said i3 Africa chairman Andrew Mthembu, a promoter of the project.

“The process is ongoing and more parties are expected to join the project. At this stage, we prefer not to disclose the names of the interested parties.” The 34,000km fiber-optic cable, with 12.8 terabits per second capacity, is expected to be operational by 2014. The cable route will stretch from Miami in the US, to Fortaleza in Brazil, Cape Town, Mauritius, Chennai in India, Singapore, Shantou in China and Vladivostok in Russia, and is anticipated to cost between US$1.2 billion and US$1.5 billion.

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wiredInUSA - July 2012

wiredInUSA - July 2012

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