Atlantis-2

This article is about the transatlantic telecommunications cable. For the computer adventure game, see Atlantis II.

ATLANTIS-2 is a fiber optic transatlantic telecommunications cable connecting Argentina, Brazil, Senegal, Cape Verde, Spain's Canary Islands and Portugal. It is the first submarine cable to link South America and the African continent.

ATLANTIS-2 (ATLANTIS II)
Owners: Carrier consortium of 25 (including Telintar, Embratel, Sonatel, Cabo Verde Telecom, Telefónica, Marconi, Telecom Italia, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon)
Landing points 1. Las Toninas, Argentina 2. Fortaleza, Brazil 3. Praia, Cape Verde 4. Dakar, Senegal 5. El Médano, Canary Islands, Spain 6. Sesimbra, Portugal
Total length	12,000 km
Topology	Trunk and Branch
Design capacity	160 Gbit/s
Currently lit capacity	40 Gbit/s
Technology	Fiber optics DWM
Date of first use	May 10, 2000 (2000-05-10)

The Atlantis 2 project total cost was US$370 million invest by a 25 international carrier consortium led technically and financially by Embratel with more than US$100 million of the investment.

Embratel, which organized the project, also installed two additional fiber pairs of 40 Gbit/s for its exclusive use between Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro.^[1]

The cable was ready for service in February 2000 with a launch capacity of 40 Gbit/s.^[2] On May 10, to celebrate the definitive start-up of that operation, a videoconference between Fernando Henrique Cardoso (President of Brazil) and António Guterres (Prime Minister of Portugal) was held to demonstrate the new link.

It is approximately 12,000 kilometers in length. The cable was disconnected on 10 January 2022 due to a consortium decision, pending upgrades to 160 Gbit/s.^[3]

The landing points include:

1. Las Toninas, Argentina
2. Fortaleza, Brazil
3. Praia, Cape Verde
4. Dakar, Senegal
5. El Médano, Canary Islands, Spain
6. Lisbon, Portugal

Sources

Pan, Hui (May 2000). "News Network" (PDF). Submarine Fiber Optics Communications Systems Monthly. Vol. 8, no. 5. Boston: Information Gatekeeper Inc. pp. 9–10. ISSN 1070-096X.