The world’s longest fiber optic will go from Argentina to the USA

The Board of Directors of the Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (Enacom) authorized this Monday to Google Infraestructura Argentina SRL the installation of the fiber optic cable system “Firmina”, in the Argentine territorial sea, with a total length of 13,500 kilometers, which will make it the longest in the world to link North and South America.

The fiber optic installation will operate with a single energy source, and its 12 fiber pairs will transport Internet traffic “fast” and “securely” with a final design capacity of 15.03 terabits per second (TB/s) per fiber pair. In addition, this network will enable technological and economic growth.

Firmina will be the world’s longest cable, capable of running on a single power source at one end of the cable should its other sources become temporarily unavailable.

“The improvement of international connectivity is considered fundamental by any industry, regardless of the sector in which it operates, due to the cross-cutting nature of telecommunications and information technologies,” said the board of Directors, headed by Claudio Ambrosini.

In addition, this will enhance Google’s products, such as search, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Cloud services.

The project spans from the United States of America (South Carolina) to Argentina (Buenos Aires), with branches in the city of Punta del Este (Uruguay) and Praia Grande (São Paulo, Brazil).

The meeting was attended by the vice-president of Enacom, Gustavo López, the directors appointed by the National Executive Power, Gonzalo Quilodrán and María Florencia Pacheco; the directors proposed by the Bicameral Commission for the Promotion and Monitoring of Audiovisual Communication, Telecommunications Technologies, and Digitalization, Alejandro Gigena (virtually).

The project is designed to be a high-capacity submarine fiber optic cable system from the city of Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, USA) to the town of Las Toninas (Buenos Aires, Argentina), with a branch in the city of Punta del Este (Uruguay) and another in the city of Praia Grande (São Paulo, Brazil).

The cable is named after Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825-1917), a Brazilian author and abolitionist whose 1859 novel “Úrsula” describes Afro-Brazilians’ life under slavery. The purpose of this cable is to highlight the work and pioneering spirit of the woman who is considered Brazil’s first novelist.

With information from Télam