LISBON, June 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. internet giant company Google announced on Friday to launch its third undersea internet cable (a private initiative) between Europe and Africa linking Portugal with South Africa, Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported.
According to the report, the project with a total investment of 47 billion U.S. dollars will go from Portugal across the African continent by the coast to South Africa, providing the internet to several other countries.
Google said that the three-year project, under the name of Cape Equiano Portugal-South Africa, should be operational in 2021, designed to strengthen its technology infrastructure, said the report.
The name, Equiano, is given in honor of the writer and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano who was born in Nigeria.
Equiano is the 14th cable in which Google participates and the third private cable project of Google. The first, Curie, was completed in April and connects Chile and Los Angeles, U.S. The second, Dunant, will connect France and the U.S. and should go online next year.
These cables are vital to global connectivity, as they carry about 99 percent of the planet's data traffic, the report said.
Portuguese Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira praised highly of the importance of the new cable.
"It is important to realize that in Portugal there is going to be a large collection and data transmission center that is provided by this very significant investment," Pedro Siza Vieira said on the sidelines of the signing of the contract, quoted by Lusa.
The minister said this investment will allow to "reinforce" communications from all over Europe, from Portugal to Africa.
