BRICS Cable

Last updated

The BRICS Cable was a planned optical fibre submarine communications cable system that would have carried telecommunications between the BRICS countries, specifically Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. [1] The cable was announced in 2012 [1] but the project was abandoned around 2015. [2] [3] The project aimed to provide bandwidth around the Southern Hemisphere of the globe and to "ensure that developing nations’ communications are not all in the hands of the nations of the North". [4]

The cable was planned to be approximately 34,000 kilometres (21,000 mi) long, and to contain a 2-fibre pair with a 12.8 Tbit/s capacity. [1] [5] It would have interconnected with the WACS cable on the West coast of Africa, and the EASSy and SEACOM cables on the East coast of the continent. [5]

The BRICS cable was intended "to circumvent the U.S. and NSA spying through ports in Russia, China, Singapore, India, Mauritius, South Africa, and Brazil". [6]

The landing points were to be Fortaleza (Brazil), Cape Town (South Africa), Mauritius, Chennai (India), Singapore, Shantou (China), and Vladivostok (Russia).

See also

Related Research Articles

Telecommunications in Mozambique include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.

Telecommunications in Tanzania include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet available in mainland Tanzania and the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecommunications in Armenia</span>

Telecommunications in Armenia involves the availability and use of electronic devices and services, such as the telephone, television, radio or computer, for the purpose of communication. The various telecommunications systems found and used in Armenia includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAT-3/WASC</span>

SAT-3/WASC or South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable is a submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route.

The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is an undersea fibre optic cable system connecting countries in Eastern Africa to the rest of the world.

Mtunzini is a small coastal town that is situated almost exactly halfway along KwaZulu-Natal's coastline in South Africa approximately 140 km north of Durban. In 2011, the town's population was 2,199.

Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) is a 28,000-kilometre-long fibre optic mostly-submarine communications cable that connects the United Kingdom, Japan, India, and many places in between. The cable is operated by Global Cloud Xchange, a subsidiary of RCOM. The system runs from the eastern coast of North America to Japan. Its Europe–Asia segment was the fourth longest cable in the world in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SEA-ME-WE 4</span> Submarine communications cable system

South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 is an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

Neotel, previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in Midrand. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is a telecommunications and Internet service provider in Botswana, and is headquartered in Gaborone. It provides telecommunications services throughout the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in South Africa</span>

The Internet in South Africa, one of the most technologically resourced countries on the African continent, is expanding. The internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .za is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) and was granted to South Africa by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1990. Over 60% of Internet traffic generated on the African continent originates from South Africa. As of 2020, 41.5 million people were Internet users.

TEAMS is an initiative spearheaded by the government of Kenya to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre optic cable. It was first proposed as an alternative to EASSy, the East African Submarine Cable System. The Kenyan government had grown frustrated with the ownership model favoured by South Africa, the time it was taking and what it perceived as an attempt by South Africa to control the cable. As a result, in November 2006, the Kenyan government decided to partner with the Emirates Telecommunication Establishment (Etisalat) to build its own fibre optic cable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SEACOM (African cable system)</span> African submarine communications cable

SEACOM launched Africa's first broadband submarine cable system along the continent's Southern coasts in 2009. SEACOM is privately owned and operated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Africa Cable System</span> Submarine communications cable linking Africa with the United Kingdom

The West Africa Cable System (WACS) is a submarine communications cable linking South Africa with the United Kingdom along the west coast of Africa that was constructed by Alcatel-Lucent. The cable consists of four fibre pairs and is 14,530 km in length, linking from Yzerfontein in the Western Cape of South Africa to London in the United Kingdom. It has 14 landing points, 12 along the western coast of Africa and 2 in Europe completed on land by a cable termination station in London. The total cost for the cable system is $650 million. WACS was originally known as the Africa West Coast Cable (AWCC) and was planned to branch to South America but this was dropped and the system eventually became the West African Cable System.

SAex is a proposed submarine communications cable linking South Africa to the United States with branches to Namibia, Saint Helena, and Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BRICS</span> Intergovernmental organization of emerging countries

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Originally identified to highlight investment opportunities, the grouping evolved into a geopolitical bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since 2009. Bilateral relations among BRICS are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality and mutual benefit.

The South Atlantic Cable System or SACS, is a submarine communications cable in the South Atlantic Ocean linking Luanda, Angola with Fortaleza, Brazil with a leg connecting the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha as well. It is the first low latency routing between Africa and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WASACE</span>

WASACE was a planned system of submarine communications cables consisting of four sections with a total length of 29,000 km linking four continents.

West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) operates as a wholesaler, providing capacity to international telecoms, cloud operators, content providers and internet service providers within and out of Africa. WIOCC offers carriers connectivity to over 550 locations across 30 African countries – utilising more than 75,000 km (47,000 mi) of terrestrial fibre and 200,000 km (120,000 mi) of submarine fibre-optic cable. WIOCC's international network reach currently extends to 100 cities in 29 countries in Europe and more than 700 cities in 70 countries globally.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Brics Cable Unveiled for Direct and Cohesive Communications Services between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa". Bloomberg News. 16 April 2012.
  2. Rolland, Nadège (2 April 2015). "A Fiber-Optic Silk Road". The Diplomat.
  3. Lee, Stacia (8 January 2016). "International Reactions to U.S. Cybersecurity Policy: The BRICS undersea cable".
  4. Smolaks, Max (17 April 2012). "BRICS To Cable The Southern Hemisphere". Tech Week Europe.
  5. 1 2 "BRICS Cable unveiled for direct and cohesive communications services between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa". Your Fibre Optic News. 17 April 2012. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. Stacia Lee (8 January 2016). "International Reactions to U.S. Cybersecurity Policy: The BRICS undersea cable". Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.