Recife, Brazil

How the Internet Reaches Recife

Recife sits on the northeastern Atlantic coast of Brazil, in the state of Pernambuco. As a coastal city, it has direct access to submarine cable infrastructure running along the Brazilian shoreline. International and domestic internet traffic reaching Recife arrives through a single submarine cable that terminates at this point — the Brazilian Festoon — connecting it to a series of other coastal cities along Brazil's eastern seaboard.

Unlike Brazil's major international cable hubs further along the coast, Recife's submarine cable infrastructure is domestic in scope. The Brazilian Festoon does not reach beyond Brazilian shores; it links Recife exclusively to other landing points within Brazil. This makes Recife a node on a coastal domestic cable, rather than an international terminus in its own right.

The Cable Serving Recife

The Brazilian Festoon (2,552 km, RFS 1996) is the sole submarine cable landing at Recife. It connects Recife to five other Brazilian coastal cities: Aracajú, Atafona, Ilhéus, João Pessoa, and Macaé. The cable runs along the Atlantic coastline of northeastern and southeastern Brazil, forming a festoon — a looping coastal route — that links these urban centers via subsea fiber. All submarine cable connectivity into and out of Recife flows through this single cable and its Brazilian landing points.

Regional Context

Brazil hosts 16 submarine cables across 31 landing points, with an average cable length of 6,974 km — reflecting the country's extensive international connections. Recife, served by just one cable, sits at the lighter end of that national picture. The dominant cable hubs in Brazil are Fortaleza (10 cables) and Rio de Janeiro (8 cables), which together handle the vast majority of Brazil's international submarine traffic. Santos (4 cables) and Salvador (3 cables) also carry more diverse connectivity than Recife. Nearby João Pessoa, which shares the Brazilian Festoon, is another modest landing point along the same northeastern coastal corridor.

What This Means for Connectivity

All submarine cable traffic flowing into or out of Recife travels through the Brazilian Festoon alone. Because this cable connects only to other Brazilian cities — Aracajú, Atafona, Ilhéus, João Pessoa, and Macaé — it serves domestic coastal connectivity rather than providing a direct path to international destinations. For international internet traffic, packets originating in Recife must route onward through Brazil's terrestrial or other network infrastructure to reach hubs such as Fortaleza or Rio de Janeiro, where international submarine cables provide onward connections to Europe, North America, and beyond.

With a single cable and no international landing, Recife illustrates an important distinction in submarine cable geography: coastal and inter-city domestic cables form the lower tier of a country's subsea infrastructure, feeding into a smaller number of internationally connected hubs. Understanding where Recife sits in that hierarchy clarifies how even large cities can depend on indirect paths for their global internet traffic.