DE-CIX together with Cabo Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) aim to create a shorter route for data moving among Southern Europe, West Africa and Latin America across the South Atlantic, while lessening reliance on Northern European and North American hubs.
On 29 September 2026, the Frankfurt-based exchange operator and the Cape Verde telecom company announced that they had executed a non-binding letter of intent to assess a connectivity corridor between Lisbon, Portugal and São Paulo, Brazil. Details regarding scope, technical architecture and commercial conditions remain to be defined in a final agreement.
Under the proposed arrangement, CVTelecom would supply exclusive transport capacity linking Lisbon and São Paulo. In exchange, it would obtain connectivity to DE-CIX points of presence in Frankfurt, Madrid, Marseille, New York and São Paulo, allowing networks to exchange traffic directly.
CVTelecom cites the subsea systems EllaLink, SHARE and WACS as the backbone of its global links and operates a carrier-neutral data centre on the islands. The primary EllaLink route connects Sines, Portugal to Brazil, and in May 2026 the network added a branch reaching Mauritania.
“Digital growth increasingly depends on resilient, diverse, and geographically distributed connectivity,” said Theresa Bobis, head of emerging wholesale markets at DE-CIX.
Isa Neves, chief marketing officer of CVTelecom, said the partnership was “an important step in strengthening Cape Verde’s position as a strategic digital gateway between Africa, Europe, and the Americas”.
Both firms are marketing the corridor to network operators, ISPs, content and cloud services, as well as enterprises seeking robust South Atlantic connections. In West Africa, the importance of route diversity has grown, given that a failure in one cable can affect multiple neighboring nations.
The initiative broadens DE-CIX’s expansion into the southern hemisphere, which originally started with its inaugural exchanges in Brazil. Notably, the corridor would originate in Lisbon, a city where DE-CIX operates an exchange promoted as a European gateway for West African and South American traffic, although Lisbon is not listed among the DE-CIX sites referenced in the proposal.
Construction of the corridor will hinge on the final agreement, and both parties have not announced a timeline.
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