EllaLink launches the Caribbean Gateway Initiative

A new open, carrier-neutral submarine cable system linking French Guiana and the Caribbean directly to Europe, Brazil and North America, with a connectivity solution for every territory along the way.

DUBLIN and CAYENNE, French Guiana, Sept. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EllaLink, the operator of the first high-capacity fibre optic submarine cable directly connecting Latin America to Europe, announces the official launch of the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway (ECG) initiative, a new submarine cable system running from Cayenne, French Guiana, to Martinique and Guadeloupe, with a western segment serving Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire.

The announcement was made during the CTU ICT Week 2026, hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union in Cayenne last week under the theme "Advancing Resilience, Inclusion, Cybersecurity and Innovation in Caribbean Digital Development", which brought together ICT ministers, regulators and industry from across the region.

Launching the development phase means the project now moves from design to committed investment. Over the coming months, EllaLink will convert letters of intent into firm commitments with the landing parties along the route, complete the financing package and close the funding structure that allows construction to start. The system is targeted to be ready for service by the end of 2029.

A diverse route for every territory

The EllaLink Caribbean Gateway is an open, carrier-neutral corridor designed to offer a tailored connectivity solution to every territory it serves.

Each territory is connected either by its own branch and landing from the trunk or through interconnection in Martinique, with express connectivity in three directions: to continental Europe over the EllaLink transatlantic system, to Fortaleza in Brazil, one of the largest cable hubs in the world, and onward to North America. For territories that today depend on a single international corridor, often reached through several hops, the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway adds a fully diverse path. It also gives a more direct access to the cloud, content and interconnection ecosystems of three continents.

From French Guiana, the system runs north along a Caribbean arc between French Guiana and Martinique, to serve Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe. Through the Martinique interconnection ecosystem, it reaches St Barthélemy and the neighbouring islands. A western segment extends from the trunk to Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire.

Preparing the next generation of regional connectivity

The international connectivity of the Caribbean and the Guianas will evolve significantly over the coming decade, as many cable systems phase out by 2031 and traffic continues to grow at a steady rate of 25% p.a. Governments and operators will need to plan for the next generation cables, ready to enjoy more content and AI compute resources. Decisions taken in the next few years will shape the region's connectivity through the 2030s.

The EllaLink Caribbean Gateway is designed to support that process. By adding a new route that complements the systems already in place, it gives governments and operators more choice, more diversity and a long-term option for their future capacity needs.

The model that has proven itself on the transatlantic EllaLink system

EllaLink applies to the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway the economic model that was at work for its dedicated branches in Morocco, Mauritania, Madeira, Cape Verde and French Guiana.

EllaLink designs and builds the infrastructure, then transfers ownership of the branch to the landing party and operates and maintains it for the life of the system. The landing party owns its branch, holds a dedicated spectrum IRU on the trunk and sets the capacity access policy on its own territory, deciding how capacity is allocated and commercialised locally. EllaLink does not sell capacity on these branches and does not compete with the customers it serves.

For a government or a national operator, this separation is a key point: the party financing the branch is the one controlling its access.

Supporting Caribbean and European digital objectives

The EllaLink Caribbean Gateway responds to priorities shared across the region. It contributes to the objectives of the CARICOM Single ICT Space and of the Porto Declaration on submarine cable resilience of February 2026, which the CTU has promoted among its Member States, in particular route diversity, redundant landing points and investment in small island developing states. As an open-access system available to every operator, it strengthens the resilience of international connectivity for the whole region, not only for the territories where it lands.

The project is equally consistent with the partnership between the European Union and the region, through the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Digital Alliance and the Global Gateway strategy, and with the EU's work on secure and resilient submarine cable infrastructure, including Recommendation (EU) 2024/779 and the 2025 EU Action Plan on Cable Security.

Built on a system already in service and a branch already in the water

The EllaLink trunk between Sines, Portugal, and Fortaleza, Brazil, has been in service since June 2021. It is the only direct fibre route between Europe and Latin America, bypassing North America, and offers 100 Tbps of transatlantic capacity over four direct fibre pairs with a transatlantic round-trip delay of under 60 ms, on a carrier-neutral and open-access basis. From a single route, EllaLink has grown into a network of more than 9,400 km, with extensions to Madeira, Cape Verde, Morocco and Mauritania.

Lum@link, the extension of approximately 2,100 km connecting the new cable landing station in Cayenne to the EllaLink trunk 250 km off the coast of Fortaleza, just finalised its marine installation phase and is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2026. Built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and owned by SPLANG, the local public company for the digital development of French Guiana, it is supported by a EUR 29.9 million grant from the CEF Digital programme managed by HaDEA, together with an investment from the Collectivité Territoriale de Guyane and financial support from the Agence Française de Développement. Lum@link is what makes the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway possible: from the end of this year, Cayenne becomes a European landing point on the South American continent, with direct optical connections to both Fortaleza and Sines, and the natural origin for a corridor running north into the Caribbean, complementing the existing routes reaching North America.

Marie-Lucienne Rattier, President of SPLANG, commented: "French Guiana is about to gain its own direct connection to Europe and to Brazil. The EllaLink Caribbean Gateway is the next logical step, and it changes the meaning of what we have built: Cayenne stops being an endpoint and becomes a crossroads for the whole Caribbean arc. That is the ambition we have carried for our territory from the beginning, and one we are glad to share with our neighbours."

Doric Ramlakhan, CEO of Telesur, continued: "Telesur was the first to support the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway. Suriname wants to plan its international connectivity for the long term, with a second, diverse route to Europe, Brazil and North America. A model in which each territory owns its branch and decides how capacity is made available locally fits that objective well."

Hon. M. Fabrice Querrard, Territorial Councillor for Digital and Innovation of the Collectivité de Saint-Barthélemy, added: "The EllaLink Caribbean Gateway is the natural continuation of our investment in the CELIA branch to Martinique. Combined, the two systems could allow St. Barts to help extend access to capacity to its neighbouring islands through existing and future regional cable systems."

Philippe Dumont, Group CEO of EllaLink, said: "With Lum@link entering service this year, we are launching the development phase of the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway to extend our infrastructure across the Caribbean arc. We are offering each territory the experience gained on the EllaLink trunk and the model that has proven itself on every one of its dedicated branches. We are targeting entry into service by the end of 2029."

About EllaLink

EllaLink is an optic fibre submarine cable system 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 and Madrid. In service since June 2021, the EllaLink System has been built with state-of-the-art coherent technology, offering 100 Tbps of transatlantic capacity over four direct fibre pairs between Europe and Brazil, with a transatlantic round-trip delay of under 60 ms. EllaLink is a privately funded and independent company committed to providing products and services on a Carrier-Neutral and Open-Access basis. Marguerite, a pan-European infrastructure investor active in the renewables, energy, transport and digital transformation sectors, is the main shareholder of EllaLink.

For more information, visit: https://ella.link

Media contact: clara.casanova@ella.link

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/afcfa37a-6f7d-4614-8f6c-61cda5714748