The new plans will increase the number of direct fibre pairs between Funchal and mainland Portugal in order to provide Emacom – Telecomunicações da Madeira, a company belonging to the Empresa de Electricidade de Madeira (EEM), with additional capacity in excess of 70Tbps.
“We are pleased to deepen our relationship with EllaLink in order to strengthen our regional infrastructure, to encourage telecoms growth and to support the current plans to improve the infrastructure connecting mainland Portugal with the autonomous regions of Madeira and Açores,” said Rui Faria Rebelo CEO of Emacom
“Expansion of our network provides our customers with choice, reliability and economic value, as well as delivering the large data capacity that Portugal will need in order to meet its connectivity demands for the next 25 years.”
Emacom has owned a dedicated fibre pair on the EllaLink system, which is designed to carry over 24Tbps of traffic, signed a deal worth €13.6 million in May 2018.
Currently under construction, EllaLink will provide the islands of Madeira with fibre diversity, increased data capacity and direct connectivity to Lisbon via a new state-of-the-art coherent submarine system. Emacom’s provisions on EllaLink are guaranteed to meet the long-term demand of this key autonomous region of the republic of Portugal.
Philippe Dumont, CEO of the EllaLink Group, added: “It gives me great pleasure to offer EMACOM an increased share in the EllaLink cable system. Additional fibre pairs at a very competitive price will position Madeira as an ideal regional hub, offering direct connections to Portugal and onwards to Spain, Cabo Verde and Brazil. We look forward to working together for many years to come.”
EllaLink, which is designed to satisfy the growing demand for traffic between Europe and Latin America, is being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and is a leading edge four fibre pair submarine cable system scheduled for operation in 2020.
