Seaborn Networks completes funding for Seabras-1 submarine network

Seaborn Networks says it has successfully gathered the $500 million needed to fund construction of the Seabras-1 submarine network that will connect New York City and São Paulo. The company says it has fully satisfied all conditions for the financing and that debt and equity funds have been drawn.

Construction of Seabras-1 has already begun, with Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (now part of Nokia) the prime contractor (see "Alcatel-Lucent to build Seabras-1 US-Brazil 100-Gbps submarine cable network").The six-fiber-pair system will have an initial maximum design capacity of 72 Tbps. In addition to its endpoints, the submarine cable network is expected to offer connections to Halifax, Novia Scotia; Ashburn, VA; Miami; St. Croix; Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; and Las Toninas, Argentina.

Tata Communications and Microsoft have signed on as clients (see "Tata Communications invests in Seabras-1 submarine network capacity" and "Microsoft buys capacity on Seabras-1 submarine cable"). The undersea cable system is expected to be ready for service in the second quarter of 2017.

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