Malbec Cable System Goes Live!

By Natalie Bannerman
June 13, 2021

June 10th saw the launch of GlobeNet’s new subsea cable system Malbec, connecting Argentina and Brazil.

Inaugurated during a live virtual event, Eduardo Falzoni described the launch of the subsea cable system as a “major milestone in the digital transformation of Latin America”

The project was started in 2018 and is now the first new route to provide direct connectivity from Argentina to Brazil, since 2001 and more than doubles the capacity that is currently availability.

By 2020, the project had completed the deployment of its two landing stations in Praia Grande, Brazil and Las Toninas, Argentina.

As of this year, the company confirmed that customers from Argentina, Colombia, and the US had been activated on the Malbec system, which interconnects GlobeNet's existing points of presence in Miami and New York directly to the new points of presence in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.

According to Falzoni, there are four pillars that underline the design of the system, these are firstly is the larger capacity, which is built to support ‘high traffic applications’ such as streaming, live sports cloud and gaming. The system has been designed to deliver 100G and 400G of capacity across the entire route.

Diversity is the next pillar with Malbec featuring a new route to previous systems and newly built landing stations “to satisfy the need for multiple access to PoPs and data centres”. Next is resiliency which was achieved through “interconnections with other systems on the subsea routes and via diverse backhaul routes”.

The last pillar was low latency “thanks to the optimal cable route, the latest advancements in optical and electronic transmission, customers in Argentina will enjoy high-speeds and capacity access with minimum latency”, added Falzoni. The estimated latency on the Malbec system is 26.7 milliseconds between San Paolo and Buenos Aires.

Joining Falzoni during the virtual launch was Diana Perez, North America Sales Director at GlobeNet who added that the system has been futureproofed to added landing points with a “stubbed branch in Porto Alegre, in South Brazil”.