SPLANG and EllaLink unveil plans for building a direct connection between French Guiana and Continental Europe

EllaLink will provide a secured connection between French Guiana, home of the European Space Centre, and continental Europe through a new high-capacity and low-latency route.

SPLANG, part of Collectivité Territoriale de Guyane (CTG) and the associated municipalities of French Guiana, has awarded the establishment of an 8,000 km submarine connection to EllaLink, the first high-capacity optic fibre submarine cable directly connecting Latin America to Europe. The contract includes the construction of a new 2,100km cable extension to the existing EllaLink cable.

This new submarine branch will land in Cayenne, French Guiana, and include 2 fibre pairs. The system will be built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and use state-of-the-art optical technologies such as a ROADM WSS branching unit, allowing direct connectivity without regeneration from French Guiana to continental Europe with an RTD latency of less than 80ms. The new infrastructure will also enable direct connections from French Guiana to Fortaleza, Brazil.

French Guiana is one of the nine outermost regions of the European Union and a land of strategic importance as it hosts the launch pads for Arianne Space Rockets. Being so remote from Continental Europe makes it difficult for the region to enjoy a direct and secure connection with the rest of Europe. To address this situation, the project benefits from funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program, underscoring its significance and alignment with European Commission Digital Gateway priorities for robust and secure infrastructure.