TI Sparkle buys Seabras-1 submarine network capacity

TI Sparkle, Telecom Italia Group's international services business unit, says it will use the upcoming Seabras-1 submarine network that will connect Sao Paulo, Brazil, and New York City to strengthen its wholesale services position in the Americas. The company says it will use three of the submarine cable networks six fiber pairs, plus a branch link to Fortaleza, Brazil. The capacity investment is worth $300 million. TI Sparkle says.

Seaborn Networks announced yesterday that it had completed funding for construction of Seabras-1 (see "Seaborn Networks completes funding for Seabras-1 submarine network"). Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (which is about to become part of Nokia) is responsible for construction of the undersea cable network, which is scheduled to be operational in 2017 (see "Alcatel-Lucent to build Seabras-1 US-Brazil 100-Gbps submarine cable network").

In addition to the submarine capacity, TI Sparkle says its investment also will buy it a protected backhaul link between New York and Miami to connect Seabras-1 to existing infrastructure. The network services provider says it also will be able to provide onward connectivity through New York to the rest of the world.

"Seabras is one of the largest one-time infrastructural investment made by Sparkle," said Alessandro Talotta, chairman and CEO of TI Sparkle, "which will make us by far leader in the Americas wholesale market supported by the largest, most advanced and reliable network in the region.

"We are witnessing a surge of high-capacity deals and with this latest investment we are fullly able to cater to this new demand, typically coming from OTTs and content providers," Talotta continued. "Last but not least, with Seabras we are able to hold onto our top ranking position as best IP quality route between North and South America for quite some time and continue to satisfy the lower latency needs of specific segments like financial institutions and the gaming industry by providing a private IP connection type of quality on the public Internet."

Tata Communications and Microsoft also have contracted to purchase capacity on Seabras-1 (see "Tata Communications invests in Seabras-1 submarine network capacity" and "Microsoft buys capacity on Seabras-1 submarine cable").

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