$1.5bn Undersea cable to link BRICS by 2014

Investors including the likes of Google are reportedly mulling a massive undersea cable that will link all of the BRICS countries.

The US$1.5-billion cable will reportedly link Brazil, India, China, Russia, and South Africa to each other as well the US. According to Andrew Mthembu, chairman of technology group i3 Africa which is promoting the project, it could be online as soon as 2014.

“I’m hoping within the coming six months we will all be in a position to get all the consortium members into some sort of agreement, and then from there it’s then a 24 month period for manufacture and installation,” he said at the ICT Indaba communications conference, currently underway in Cape Town, South Africa.

The cable will also reportedly link existing undersea cables, opening up access to 21 additional African countries.

Africa in particular is experiencing a bandwidth explosion at present. The proposed BRICS cable is just one of five new submarine links set to land in Africa by 2014.

“All of these cable connections should help improve the connection to our new trade partners, reduce the cost to communicate and improve the quality of the Internet services,” said South Africa’s communication minister Dina Pule.

Given that emerging markets are already leading the way when it comes to internet growth, more cables means that they could push current global internet penetration way past 32%.