Cape Verde connected yesterday (06) to the submarine fiber optic cable EllaLink, which also connects Europe to Latin America, multiplying by ten the current data traffic capacity, foreseeing to export bandwidth to the West African coast.
"It marks, in fact, a new era of telecommunications and the Internet in Cape Verde“, said Cape Verdean Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, at the official EllaLink connection event, which took place yesterday in Praia, underlining the importance of this investment to position the archipelago as a “relevant” technological hub in Africa and in the middle Atlantic.
According to Ulisses Correia e Silva, the digital economy already represents 6% of Cape Verde’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but the goal is “to rise to at least 25%“, giving as an example the possibility of Cape Verde attracting technology companies and digital nomads to work from the archipelago, given the increase in traffic capacity made possible by the new submarine fiber optic cable, which will also be made profitable by the completion, in progress, of the Submarine Share Cable connection, between Praia and Dakar, Senegal.
"It is practically finalized and will be operational shortly, making it possible to considerably improve the total bandwidth for export from Cape Verde to Senegal and West African countries“, assumed the head of government.
The submarine cable EllaLink, with land connections in mainland Portugal (Sines), Morocco, Madeira, Cape Verde and Brazil (Fortaleza, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), has four pairs of last generation optical fiber and according to Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT), which took over the investment for connecting that private project to the archipelago, will have a capacity at least ten times greater than the only submarine connection that serves the country.
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However, the expected capacity of Ellalink, of 12,6 terabits of data per second, to be delivered to CVT — with a reduction of the current latency of around 40% and which, for the first time, will allow the archipelago to have independent and direct connections to Latin America and for Europe - it can be expanded later up to 70 terabits per second.
João Domingos Correia, chairman of the board of directors of CVT, underlined that the investment in the connection to the new submarine cable is the “best way to modernize the business” of the company, controlled by the Cape Verdean State, and which will “mitigate” the difficulties of international data connections.
"Today, with the activation of the system, a historic milestone remains, of great relevance for the country and for the telecommunications sector.", he said, predicting a "catalyst effect” of the new connection in all sectors of activity in Cape Verde, including in terms of security, due to the redundancy that now exists.
The EllaLink connection to Cape Verde is budgeted at US$30 million (EUR 28 million), with financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the amount of US$25 million (EUR 23,4 million), with a guarantee from the Government of Cape Verde, including five million dollars (4,7 million euros) for the construction of the connection station, which is underway, in Praia.
