(Reuters) Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.
At a summit in Brussels, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to "guarantee the neutrality" of the Internet, signaling her desire to shield Brazil's Internet traffic from U.S. surveillance. According to other sources, the construction is scheduled to begin in July.
A joint venture between Brazilian telecoms provider Telebras and Spain's IslaLink Submarine Cables would lay the communications link. Telebras would have a 35 percent stake, IslaLink would have a 45 percent interest and European and Brazilian pension funds could put up the remainder.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Kawumpa on Tuesday February 25 2014, @05:44AM
Anyone who seriously thinks that this isn't just another propaganda ploy in order to distract from their own agency's surveillance and data mining activities hasn't been paying attention lately. It's not like continental Europe isn't striving to do exactly what the NSA or GCHQ have been doing for quite some time now. The EU though still needs to attach the finishing touches to its data retention policies and make it all legal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:19AM
Let's put it in another way: wouldn't many US Comcast subscribers be happy with $185mils worth of propaganda that brings extra bandwitdh to them?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by lajos on Tuesday February 25 2014, @12:32PM
^^^ This. Wish I had mod points.