Seaborn Networks, an independent developer-owner-operator of submarine cable systems, and Grupo Werthein, a major Argentine investment holding company with significant holdings in the telecommunications sector, announced a binding agreement for the construction of a new subsea optical cable system, named ARBR, connecting Argentina with Brazil.
The new ARBR cable system will additionally provide onward connectivity via Seabras-1, which is currently under construction, to enable a direct route between Argentina and the U.S. The ARBR system will be jointly developed and owned by Seabras Group, an affiliate of Seabras, and Werthein.
Seabras is the sole owner of the Seabras-1 submarine cable system between New York and Sao Paulo in Brazil, which was developed and is operated and owned by Seaborn Networks, in partnership with funds managed and/or advised by Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager.
Seabras noted that it has sold capacity on Seabras-1 to a variety of large and small telecommunications companies and other customers, both via indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) and on short-term lease agreements. As with Seabras-1, Seaborn will act as the operator of the ARBR system. Seabras stated that together the ARBR and Seabras-1 cables represent a total project value of more than $575 million.
The ARBR cable will be a four-fibre pair system with and will offer an initial maximum design capacity of 48 Tbit/s. The system has a scheduled completion date in the second half of 2018. The ARBR cable system’s Brazil landing will be located in the existing Seabras-1 cable landing station in Praia Grande, Brazil, enabling direct onward connectivity to New York over Seabras-1. The Argentina landing for the new cable is expected to be in or near Las Toninas, to the south of Buenos Aires.
In December 2016, Seaborn announced the introduction of SeaSpeed, offering low latency point-to-point connectivity between Carteret, New Jersey and São Paulo in Brazil and connecting key financial centres in North and South America. The Seabras-1 cable system has a committed ready-for-service date of June 2017.
