BRUSA

Overview

BRUSA is a trans-Atlantic submarine cable system spanning approximately 11,000 kilometres and connecting Brazil and the United States. Owned and operated by Telxius, it provides a direct link between the eastern coast of South America and two major landing hubs on the United States eastern seaboard, serving the Brazil–United States corridor.

Route and Landings

In Brazil, BRUSA lands at two points: Fortaleza in the northeast and Rio de Janeiro further south along the Atlantic coast.

In the United States, the cable comes ashore at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and at Virginia Beach, Virginia, on the mid-Atlantic coast.

Ownership and Operators

BRUSA is wholly owned by Telxius, the telecommunications infrastructure arm of Telefónica. As sole owner, Telxius manages the cable without a consortium structure.

Technical Profile

BRUSA has a total system length of 11,000 kilometres, making it one of the more compact routes in its corridor — longer than approximately 70 percent of the other cable systems that touch Brazil and the United States.

Status and Timeline

BRUSA entered service in 2018 and has been operational for approximately eight years. It currently carries live traffic across the Brazil–United States corridor.

Regional Context

The Brazil–United States corridor hosts a number of cable systems of varying lengths and vintages, including GlobeNet, South America-1 (SAm-1), and South American Crossing (SAC), several of which entered service around 2000 and cover distances well exceeding BRUSA's 11,000 kilometres. At 134.6 ms average round-trip latency — with a best recorded measurement of 108.9 ms across 67 ping tests in the past 60 days — BRUSA delivers measured performance consistent with its relatively compact route length compared to peers such as the planned Project Waterworth at 50,000 kilometres.

Strategic Role

By landing at two geographically distinct points in Brazil — the northeastern hub of Fortaleza and the southern metropolitan centre of Rio de Janeiro — and connecting them to Puerto Rico and Virginia Beach, BRUSA distributes connectivity across both the northeast and southeast of Brazil while reaching into the Caribbean and the eastern United States. This landing configuration reduces reliance on any single entry point and broadens geographic reach within its corridor.