Virginia Beach will physically anchor to Brazil and Puerto Rico by early 2018.
The city’s Development Authority on Tuesday announced the sale of 3.5 acres in Corporate Landing Business Park to Spanish broadband giant Telefónica. The company, which provides internet access in 21 counties, will build a large data center that is planned to house the mid-Atlantic’s first transoceanic fiber cable station.
The submarine cable, called BRUSA, will stretch nearly 7,000 miles, transmitting data through pulses of light and color between Virginia Beach and places such as Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, Brazil, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the announcement.
That connection will increase data transmission for the Hampton Roads region and others, according to the release.
Matt Arvay, the city’s chief information officer, said in the release that it also puts the city in a global conversation about telecommunications and data infrastructure.
“Being the first transoceanic fiber cable station in the Mid-Atlantic is a differentiator for the City of Virginia Beach,” he said.
Virginia Beach Economic Development Director Warren Harris said in the release that the project “significantly advances Virginia Beach’s potential for future projects of this kind.”
Companies such as Telefónica tend to cluster, and that means the city can use the cable and data center as bait for more organizations, Harris said.
“Additionally, we anticipate even more interest because the stronger telecom infrastructure will have great appeal to businesses that require big data,” he said.
Telefónica’s global fiber optic network spans more than 40,000 miles — nearly half of it proprietary submarine cable — connecting the Americas and Europe.
Other U.S. cities with cable landing points include Miami; Jacksonville, Fla.; New York; Nedonna Beach, Ore.; Morro Bay, Calif.; Oahu, Hawaii; and Hawaii (island), Hawaii.
