Linking continents
GlobeNet Communications and other companies race to build fiber-optic Web connections between the U.S. and Latin America
Web Published Tuesday, March 7, 2000
Published in Daily Business Review on: Tuesday, March 7, 2000
By Frank Alvarado

GlobeNet Communications Group Ltd. is constructing a cable landing station in Boca Raton, part of an undersea cable system that is expected to significantly boost the broadband connection between South Florida and Latin America.

The network will be capable of carrying the equivalent of nearly 15 million simultaneous telephone conversations, considerably improving the ability of U.S. Internet companies to provide services in Latin America.

Latin American countries will have access to high-speed connectivity, which is now in short supply, says Julio Ibarra, director of Florida International University's department of network engineering and telecommunications.

"Within the next five years, you will begin to see a tremendous increase in broadband capability to Latin America," he said.

Bermuda-based GlobeNet, however, isn't alone in the race to connect the two continents. Other companies building fiber-optic networks to and from Latin America include Global Crossings Inc., another undersea cable developer, and Telefonica, Spain's telecom and media giant. Global Crossings already has a landing station in Hollywood, connecting South Florida to Europe, Ibarra said.

What's more, Ibarra said the construction of the station boosts efforts to create a network access point in South Florida. In the U.S., there are only four such major interchanges, where Internet traffic carriers connect to each other.

GlobeNet's and other fiber networks will provide better, faster and more reliable connections to Latin America, which translates to more customers for Internet companies targeting the region, said Carlos Cardona, chief technology officer and a founder of Miami Beach-based Yupi.com, a leading Spanish-language Internet portal site.

With the current infrastructure in Latin America, Cardona said, portal sites like Yupi.com are limited in providing rich content such as streaming video and audio. "With faster connections, we can provide our users with on-demand video and audio," he said.

Fiber networks also bring down the costs of providing access to the Internet, Cardona said.

GlobeNet intends to tap into the potential of the North and South American markets primarily by offering its fiber network, known as Atlantica-1, as a backbone for Internet service providers throughout the region. The company, which is based in St. David's, Bermuda, and employs 75 in Bermuda, Canada, Latin America and the U.S., is considering putting its Latin American headquarters in Boca Raton.

Gary Gooderum III, president of GlobeNet Latin America, said the offices would be the permanent location for the company's top level executives and the sales staff for the Latin American region. He said the company will make a formal announcement on its Boca Raton plans in two months.

GlobeNet recently acquired property at 500 S. Dixie Highway, Boca Raton, where it will build a 15,000-square-foot cable landing station that will make South Florida one of the links to Atlantica-1, a $1 billion, 22,500-kilometer fiber-optic cable network.

The station - which will be built at an estimated cost of $20 million - is to be ready for service by December. It will initially employ 10 people and house fiber optic communications systems, telecommunications equipment, generators, a network monitoring center and office space.

Other GlobeNet landing stations will be in New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.

At GlobeNet, Gooderum said the company wants to be "a carrier's carrier."

"Right now," he said, "there is high demand for an Internet backbone between North and South America due to the high cost of establishing communications networks in the South American markets."

With Internet service expected to grow by 400 percent in South America, Gooderum said, Atlantica-1 will be a boon to the dot-coms that serve Latin America. "It will reduce costs for ISPs, while expanding their reach," he said.

The first phase of Atlantica-1 is scheduled for completion in September, followed by the second phase in December. Alcatel Submarine Networks is building the network, which is fully financed.

GlobeNet also has a partnership with Global TeleSystems Group Inc. to connect Atlantica-1 with Global's FLAG Atlantic-1, a cable joining European cities to New York.