Uruguay has approved the laying of Google’s ‘Firmina‘ undersea fiber optic cable, clearing another hurdle to launching the longest-ever single-ended power cable.
Announced in June 2021, Firmina is an open submarine cable that will run from the east coast of the United States to Las Toninas, Argentina, with additional landfalls at Praia Grande, Brazil, and Punta del Este (approximately 13,500 kilometers long).
The infrastructure was approved by the Argentine government last August. With a decision published at the end of last year, the Uruguayan government has now also approved the cable.
Firmina will be the longest cable in the world that can be fully powered by a single power source at one end of the cable when the other power sources are temporarily unavailable. Google calls this a strengthening of resiliency at a time when reliable connections are more important than ever, giving users fast, low-latency access to Google products like Search, Gmail and YouTube, as well as Google Cloud services.
The new cable is expected to be operational in 2023. The cable’s name pays homage to Maria Firmina dos Reis, a Brazilian author and abolitionist. Google’s other submarine cables in the region include Curie (Chile-US), Monet (Brazil-US), Junior (Brazilian cities), and Tannat (Argentina-Uruguay-Brazil).
With information from latinapress
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