ZTT International Submarine Cable & System has been hired as the cable supplier for three stretches of the Brazilian government-sponsored Amazon river fibre project Norte Conectado.
Norte Conectado aims to expand the communications infrastructure in the Amazon region of Brazil through an underwater fibre trunk network.
The underwater fibre backbone is composed of eight stretches, called Infovias, along rivers in the Amazon basin. The first two, Infovias 00 and 01, are already underway.
According to the BNamericas website, cables from ZTT International will be used to supply Infovias 02, 03 and 04, which will provide broadband connection to 22 municipalities in the region.
ZTT, which provides turnkey solutions for fibre optic communications, FTTH, submarine cable systems, overhead transmission systems, RF cable systems and premises cabling, will produce, test and deliver some 2,345 kilometres of underwater cables and 456 kilometres of terrestrial ones.
All cables are scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of this year, according to ZTT. In a statement, the company said: "This is the most extended non-repeater submarine fibre optic cable awarded to ZTT in the South American market."
Investments in the area are obligatory for winners of the 2021 5G spectrum auction. The winners created a grouping, called Entidade Administradora da Faixa (EAF), to oversee these mandatory investments.
The 770km Infovia 00, was completed in February last year, connecting Macapá (Amapá state) to Alenquer (Pará). Italy’s Prysmian was the cable supplier.
As we reported in December, the deployment of Infovia 01, with Chinese fibre optics manufacturer Hengtong as the cable supplier, was expected to be available for use by March.
This network is said to have a low environmental impact as it uses river beds to reach the population and does not require deforestation.
