Emergia Holding N.V, a provider of broadband infrastructure services developing a high capacity fiber optic system in Latin America, announced it has completed building its fiber optic ring around Latin America and into the United States. Upon completion, Emergia claims it will become the first company in Latin America to finish a high capacity, undersea, fiber optic cable network, placing the company at least two months ahead of its direct competitors, according to company officials.
The network covers approximately 25,000 kilometers (about 16,000 miles) and offers an initial capacity of 40 Gigabits per second (expandable to 1.92 Terabits per second). The network includes 1,600 km of terrestrial fiber optic lines, and landing stations in all the major cities in Latin America, Florida and Puerto Rico. The Emergia network is further extended to the customer's premises by making use of the strong presence of Telefonica's affiliated companies in the region to provide city-to-city, door-to-door connectivity.
The network, now in service and fully operational, represents an investment of $1.3 billion and will provide services to telecoms and Internet providers via an open and unrestricted access network connecting the main cities of the Americas: Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Lima, Guatemala City, San Juan and Miami.
Given the limitations of the legacy infrastructure in the region, the maximum capacity of any network in Latin America was previously limited to 20 gigabits per second. With the Emergia network now operational, the company has the capability to upgrade its systems to 1.92 Terabits, allowing vast amounts of information to be transported at higher speeds and without interruptions in service. The Emergia network will eliminate the bottleneck in Internet traffic and allow integration of Latin American businesses into the electronic and virtual worlds.
The increasing deregulation of the telecommunications market in Latin America and the need for broadband access within the last mile have been principal demand drivers for the Emergia network. Demand for broad-bandwidth communications between Latin America and the US is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. According to the Yankee Group research firm, the demand for communications capacity in Latin America and between Latin America and the United States will grow from 2001 to 2006 at an annual compounded rate of about 68 percent (from 110 to 1,494 Gbps).
A self-healing ring, the Emergia network is designed to provide service continuity at a standard greater than 99.995 percent reliability (for a point-to-point 2.5 Gbps path) and ensure error-free quality for over 25 years. Its internal restoration system is designed to react to failures in less than 300 milliseconds, with no noticeable degradation in service or dropped calls. To supervise the bandwidth of each customer, the company maintains network management and operations centers as well as customer care centers to lend support and personalized service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Continued operation of the submarine network is assured by SeaHorse, with ships dedicated exclusively to maintenance of the Emergia network on both sides of the continent.
With completion, Emergia states it will become the first full network in the Americas using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, to increase the 10 Gbps capacity of the fiber optic system and provide automatic restoration and upgrade capabilities with Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology.
About Emergia:
Emergia Holding N.V., is a subsidiary of Telefonica S.A., created to provide broadband communication services through an advanced, undersea, high-capacity, fiber optic network in Latin America. Emergia is headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the USA.