More than 3,000 kilometres of Chinese-made fibre optic cables have arrived in Brazil, destined to create three new backbone connectivity routes for an ambitious digital connectivity programme, reports the Chile-based business intelligence platform BNamericas.
Entidade Administradora da Faixa (EAF), a non-profit entity created by Brazil’s telecom agency Anatel and linked to communications ministry MCom, purchased the 3,170 kilometres of cable from ZTT International Submarine Cable & System. EAF is responsible for carrying out the Norte Conectado programme, a sprawling network of subfluvial fibre optic cables aimed at bringing digital connectivity to the Amazon region.
Weighing around 5,000 tons in total, the cable will be used to build three routes that will serve municipalities in the northern states of Roraima, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Acre and Rondônia.
According to the government, it represents the largest logistics operation undertaken by Norte Conectado to date. Installation of the cable is expected to begin in May.
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Budgeted at around 1.6 billion reais (US$307.5 million), the Norte Conectado programme utilises the Amazon region’s extensive river network to expand communications infrastructure while avoiding deforestation and the construction of high-impact infrastructure.
The multi-phase project is expected to connect more than 70 municipalities across six states, providing reliable internet connectivity to over 10 million inhabitants.
Brazil touted Norte Conectado at last November’s COP30, hosted in the Amazonian city of Bélem, as the world’s largest subfluvial and sustainable connectivity project.
Norte Conectado is expected to expand services, including telemedicine, distance education, scientific research, professional training, environmental monitoring and digital economic activities, according to MCom, contributing to the social and productive development of the riverside, Indigenous and quilombos communities.
