Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) and EllaLink said the high-capacity subsea cable system between Europe and Latin America is now in full operation.

Delivered by EllaLink to Equinix’s International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres—SP4 in São Paulo, LS1 in Lisbon and MD2 in Madrid—the companies claim the new EllaLink Subsea Cable system provides a 50% increase in network performance between data centres in Brazil, Portugal and Spain when compared to routes that had to previously transit through North America.

Jim Poole, Vice President, Business Development, Equinix, said: “More data is being produced and processed today than ever before—and almost every byte of data that moves over the internet touches a subsea cable.

“As a result, organisations require access to high-capacity, low-latency networks capable of connecting them to data centres across oceans with the highest levels of reliability.”

EllaLink said it selected Equinix due to the company’s work within the subsea infrastructure space and its access to dense, rich ecosystems of networks, clouds, financial and IT service providers. Equinix serves as an interconnection partner in more than 40 of the current subsea cable projects.

Subsea cables are key to the internet and global connectivity, as 99% of intercontinental traffic crosses a subsea cable with less than one percent of the remaining traffic carried through satellite systems.

The global subsea cable market is expected to be valued at $22 billion by 2025, more than doubling from 2019, according to TTIF. A significant portion of this growth is in cables connecting Latin America to the rest of the world.

Diego Matas, Chief Operating Officer, EllaLink, said: “Offering one-hop connections between Latin America and Europe with a 60ms latency is a game-changer from a transatlantic latency perspective.

“During these last months, EllaLink continued working directly with Equinix in order to secure carrier-neutral connections from our PoP locations in Equinix’s data centres and we are now enabling our customers to directly access the rich ecosystems of networks, clouds, and financial and IT service providers that Equinix hosts.”

Spain and Portugal are important gateways to Brazil and the rest of South America for many European markets. As the capital of Portugal, Lisbon is at the centre of industry, government and commerce.

It represents an important international connectivity hub, with subsea cables connecting the Iberian Peninsula from Lisbon to Africa and South America.

Spain is also an essential hub on the global connectivity map due to its physical location between Africa, Mediterranean Europe and Northern Europe, and its strong cultural connection to Latin America. 5G deployments, the ongoing tech boom and growth in the use of data, telecom subscriptions and internet connections between the two continents are increasing bandwidth capacity requirements.

Equinix’s footprint counts today with more than 230 IBX data centres in 65 global markets across 27 countries.