aicep Global Parques, EllaLink and Start Campus Cooperate Making Sines the New Atlantic Hub - a Safe, Neutral, Resilient and Easy Place to Land and Operate Submarine Cables

aicep Global Parques, EllaLink and Start Campus, the company responsible for the SINES hyperscale sustainable data centre, are working together to create the 'Atlantic Hub,' enhancing connectivity between Europe, North and South America and Africa.

The partnership, which includes collaboration from the Portuguese Government in coordinating various public entities at national and local levels, aims to establish Sines, Portugal, as a safe, neutral, resilient and easy place to land submarine cables. This includes:

• A transparent and comprehensive solution to streamline the licensing and construction authorization process, establishing a risk controlled environment with unique regulatory conditions for landing submarine cables in a strategic location for intercontinental connectivity;
• The creation of a "Cable Protection zone" in front of Sines for pre-licensing of submarine cable routes, ensuring enhanced and controlled cable protection;
• The construction, in Sines, of several multi-tenant, robust and diverse fronthaul infrastructures for submarine cables, connecting the SINES data centre, EllaLink Cable Landing Station (CLS) and other cable landing points, and Sines Tech.

Sines thus positions itself as a secure, transparent, and neutral submarine hub, capable of attracting more international cables due to a unique, simplified location, with low risk and high security, connected to large-scale interconnection hubs and data centres, with 100% sustainable energy solutions.

This project guarantees the reinforcement of an ecosystem conducive to the landing of submarine cables with the connection between the sustainable Hyperscale data centre SINES, high-speed submarine cables such as EllaLink, and access to clean energy sources and cooling infrastructures using seawater, with negligent WUEs.

Creating a natural redundancy and giving strength to the Atlantic Hub, the unrepeated high fibre count submarine cable system, Olisipo, will provide Sines the diversity to other digital infrastructures in Portugal, connecting to other cable landings and data centres.

The Atlantic Hub is expected to bring substantial economic benefits to the region as it boosts job creation, stimulates local economic activity, and contributes to the growth of the digital economy. It can also encourage technology companies to establish a presence in the area.

For Afonso Salema, CEO of Start Campus, "The Atlantic Hub will enable a huge reduction in risk for new subsea systems as well as a qualitative leap in processes that are generally time-consuming in an industry that needs ever shorter deadlines between the investment decision and the start of operations. It is indeed encouraging to have the collaboration of partner companies such as EllaLink and official organisations such as aicep Global Parque, which give strength to all the projects that are increasingly looking to Sines as the European gateway to the explosion of intercontinental connectivity."

Diego Matas, COO of EllaLink, also adds, "Developing a digital and connectivity Hub is a crucial milestone for the entire EllaLink vision, which started long ago when we first decided to come to Sines and land a cable here! Atlantic Hub and the Olisipo Submarine cable system will boost the country's interconnectivity, offering new investors something completely innovative for the region and adding critical advantages to Sines as a preferred gateway to and from Europe. EllaLink is firmly committed to the development of such a project."

For Isabel Caldeira Cardoso, CEO of aicep Global Parques, "We are aware of the importance of the Atlantic Hub for Portugal's attractiveness in the digital sector. International connectivity is increasingly important and the Sines region, due to its intrinsic characteristics, can be a driving force behind the development of this important vector in the national economy. Simplification in the sense of efficiency and effectiveness is undoubtedly a key factor for developers, the main digital players in the market. Our role is to be an active and dynamic entity in this process, creating greater wealth and sustainable development for our country."

About aicep Global Parques

aicep Global Parques - Gestão de Áreas Empresariais e Serviços, S. A., is a Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs State-Owned company, dedicated to the management of business parks and to the provision of the best location solutions for companies looking to install a business in Portugal, thus attracting and promoting the settlement of domestic and foreign investment in the country.

aicep Global Parques manages ZILS - Sines Industrial and Logistic Zone, the country's largest business park suitable for energy, industrial, logistics and service activities, adjacent to the port of Sines. The Sines Tech - Innovation & Data Center Hub is a technological hub located in ZILS, offering excellent conditions for installing intercontinental submarine cables mooring stations and mega data and computing centers.

About EllaLink

EllaLink is a privately funded and independent company committed to providing products and services on a Carrier Neutral and Open Access basis. Marguerite II, a pan-European equity fund active in the renewables, energy, transport and digital infrastructure sectors, is the main shareholder of EllaLink. The EllaLink submarine cable system is an advanced optical platform offering secure high-capacity connectivity on a unique low latency transatlantic route serving the growing needs of the Latin American and European markets. The EllaLink network directly connects Brazil and Europe, linking the major hubs of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza with Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille. The EllaLink submarine cable system has been built with state-of-the-art coherent technology initially offering 100Tbps of capacity over four direct fibre pairs between Europe and Brazil.

For more information visit ella.link

About Start Campus

Start Campus is responsible for the development of the SINES project, a Hyperscaler data center campus with a capacity of up to 495 MW in Sines, an investment of up to ?3.5 billion. It will be one of the largest data center campuses in Europe and meets the growing demand from large international technology companies. It will create up to 1,200 direct highly skilled jobs and 8,000 indirect jobs by 2028. It is located in Sines and will benefit from all the strategic advantages such as sea water cooling systems, access to the high voltage electrical grid, connectivity through the connection to high capacity international networks of fiber optic cables with North America, Africa and South America. SINES 4.0 will be one of the largest data center ecosystems with 100% green energy at competitive prices in a premium location in Europe, which is the perfect gateway to Europe and the world.

See more information in www.startcampus.pt