EllaLink Lays Brazilian Amazon Branching Units

Clara Casanova, EllaLink
September 14, 2026

EllaLink says two branching units for planned Brazilian Amazon connections have been laid on the seabed during its Lum@link marine campaign. The units are intended to accept future branches to Salinópolis in Pará and São Luís in Maranhão; the branches themselves are not yet in service. The company dates the announcement September 14 and says Alcatel Submarine Networks manufactured and installed the devices. It places the units at depths of 3,920 metres and 3,690 metres, making this a completed deepwater installation milestone beyond July's reported vessel departure and start of the main lay.

The units are designed to let the Brazilian connections join Lum@link without another deepwater intervention on the main route. Lum@link extends roughly 2,100 km from Cayenne in French Guiana to EllaLink's existing trunk off Fortaleza, with an optical path onward to Sines, Portugal. EllaLink says the combined initial capacity planned for the two state branches is 17 Tbps, with room for expansion. That figure refers to the prospective branches, not capacity already available at the Pará and Maranhão landing points.

The branch projects have distinct state partners: PRODEPA for Pará and ATI for Maranhão. EllaLink says the state governments funded the branching units, alongside European Union grant support, within a wider Amazon connectivity program intended for co-financing by the Inter-American Development Bank and Agence Française de Développement groups. The company has completed cable route studies covering offshore and landing routes, preliminary permits, environmental work and engineering. A finished route study and installed branching unit reduce later construction work, but neither means the branch cables have been laid or commissioned.

EllaLink expects Lum@link itself to enter service by the end of 2026. Its chief executive says marine survey for the Brazilian branches can begin once Pará and Maranhão finalize their funding; no survey start or branch service date is announced. The distinction matters for cable owners and regional planners: the main system has a stated service target, while the Amazon branches remain conditional expansion options. If built, they would give both states submarine landing points and routes toward Fortaleza, Cayenne and Europe, adding diversity to long terrestrial backhaul paths.

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