EllaLink Lands Subsea Cable Extension in French Guiana
By Dan Swinhoe, Data Center Dynamics
January 22, 2026
EllaLink has landed a subsea cable in French Guiana.
The company this week announced it had landed an extension of its namesake cable system in the capital city, Cayenne.
The EllaLink system currently connects Latin America and Europe via one cable landing in Fortaleza, Brazil; Praia, Cape Verde; Casablanca, Morocco; and Funchal and Sines, Portugal.
First announced in January 2024, the 2,100km Lum@link branch connects French Guiana and Europe across two fiber pairs. Work started on the system in October 2024.
The original EllaLink cable was laid between late 2020 and 2021, running from Fortaleza in Brazil via Cabo Verde and Madeira to Sines in Portugal, with a branch to Morocco. The 5,900 km (3,666 miles) cable offers around 100Tbps across four fiber pairs.
The new branch was developed in partnership with SPLANG. An abbreviation for the Société Publique Locale pour l’Aménagement Numérique de la Guyane, SPLANG is the local authorities’ operational arm for digital development in French Guiana. It was formed in 2014 to deploy digital infrastructure such as fiber and satellite networks.
EllaLink is the first trans-Atlantic cable landing at the South American French territory. French Guiana currently has three other subsea cables planned or in operation, with two landing in Cayenne.
The Americas-II cable, laid in 2000, runs from Brazil to Florida via Cayenne, Venezuela, and a number of islands in the region; while 2019's Kanawa cable from Orange connects Kourou in French Guiana to Schoelcher in Martinique. Set to go live later this year, Digicel's Deep Blue One connects Cayenne to Georgetown, Guyana; Paramaribo, Suriname; and Chaguaramas and Rockly Bay in Trinidad and Tobago.
An extension of the EllaLink system is underway to connect the cable to Mauritania.
news via inbox
Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox!
