(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- A consortium led by telecoms giant China United Network Communications has completed work on the first-ever subsea optic cable connection between the continents of Africa and South America.

The South Atlantic Inter Link consortium, which also includes Cameroonian utility Camtel, has installed a 6,000 kilometer cable linking base stations in the central African nation's coastal town of Kribi with Fortaleza in Brazil, China Unicom said in a statement.

The cable boasts a design capacity of 32 terabits per second and marks an infrastructural milestone for the southern hemisphere. It will provide a new channel for web traffic with high reliability, security as well as low latency and large capacity.

China Unicom, Camtel and Huawei Marine Networks signed a construction contract for the project in June last year.

Editor: William Clegg