Why Telxius is hooking up to Google's US-Brazil-Argentina cable

Telxius, Telefónica’s submarine cable company, appears to be betting on network complementarity and on a "co-opetition" concept by joining Google’s Firmina cable.

The cable, until now 100% owned by Google, will run from the East Coast of the US to Las Toninas in Argentina, Punta del Este in Uruguay and then Praia Grande in Brazil. 

The system is due to go live in the coming months.

Over 14,000km in length and with 12 pairs of fiber optics, it is expected to provide users with fast and low-latency access to Google products such as Search, Gmail and YouTube, as well as Google Cloud.

CROSS-SELL AND UPSELL

It is not totally clear whether Telxius will be part of a formal consortium with Google for Firmina or if it will be entitled to a few fiber pairs to offer its customers in exchange for investments in the system.

“In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, we believe in the continuous growth of our international submarine cable network to create major business opportunities for all of us involved. We are also thrilled to announce the expansion of our collaboration with Google and confirm our shared mission to jointly invest in internet infrastructure,” said Mario Martín, CEO of Telxius, in a release.

From what is known, the strategy has an important commercial scope for cross-selling and upselling data transport services for both companies.

That is because, according to Telxius, its “customers will benefit from three redundant routes between the US and Brazil (Firmina, Brusa and SAm-1) as well as three redundant routes extending to Argentina (Firmina, Tannat and SAm-1)."

Telxius also said the routes are expected to open new opportunities for businesses because they will accelerate data traffic and boost the digital economy.

Bursa and SAm-1 are owned by Telxius, while Tannat was a cable co-owned by Google and Uruguay’s Antel. 

Telxius now reports Tannat is also part of its portfolio, along with Firmina.

“The Telxius network spans over 100,000km of submarine and terrestrial fiber, including eight next-generation subsea systems: Marea, Brusa, Dunant, Tannat, Junior, Mistral, Tikal, and now Firmina," according to Telxius.

TECHNICAL SIDE

Telxius' agreement with Google also has an interesting technical component. 

As part of the announcement, Telxius said it will host Firmina in its “Santos digital hub."

Santos is next to Praia Grande in São Paulo state, and a landing point for SAm-1 and Tannat, in addition to other systems such as Monet, SAC and Junior.

This could mean an interconnection will be made between the two nearby landing points.

Telxius is betting on different strategies for the submarine cable, either teaming up with a partner or investing alone.

In October, for example, Telxius announced it would extend its high-capacity subsea cable Tikal to Cancún, Mexico. 

That entire system is co-owned with América Móvil, but Telxius said it would invest alone in the Cancún extension.

Google, for its part, announced in September a new US-Europe system of its own, with a branch to Bermuda.