New York-São Paulo fiber route funding completed

Seaborn Networks announced it has completed its US$500mn project funding for Seabras-1, a subsea fiber optic cable connecting New York and São Paulo.

The cable is being built for Seaborn and private equity Partners Group by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, subsidiary of French telecom equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent. The project began in September 2014 and is expected to be operational by 2Q17.

"This six-fiber pair system with initial maximum design capacity of 72Tbps is the first system to provide a direct point-to-point route between the commercial and financial centers of the United States and Brazil," Seaborn said in a release.

"Seabras-1 also includes branching units installed on certain of its fiber pairs that point towards Halifax (Canada), Ashburn (US), Miami (US), St. Croix (US), Fortaleza (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and Las Toninas (Argentina)."

Another financial partner in the project, Natixis, closed last year US$267mn in debt financing for Seabras-1.

In addition to Seabras-1, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) was carrying out another US-LatAm route, the Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS) linking Florida to Ecuador. The project was completed in August and is ready to begin commercial operations.

Alcatel-Lucent is in the process of being taken over by rival Nokia.