MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Google data center project in Uruguay under way

Google is involved in Uruguay's telecommunications since 2012, having already made Antel a majir player in the region.

Google plans to build a data centre for storage and server management within Uruguay's Science Park in the Canelones area, it was announced. It will be Google's second such facility in Latin America, the other one being in Chile.

The US giant expects to have one of its 14 data centers in a space of more than 20 hectares in the duty free zone of the Science Park in Canelones, it was reported.

Negotiations for the Uruguay enterprise gained momentum when then Industry Minister Carolina Cosse visited Google’s headquarters on the west coast of the United States over two years ago but the project's blueprint dates back to 2012.

Google's decision was reportedly based on the installation in 2017 of an underwater cable between the Uruguayan beach resort of Punta del Este and the city of Fortaleza in Brazil, in addition to a submarine fiber optic cable that connects the Santos and Fortaleza (Brazil) with Boca Raton (Florida, USA).

In November 2015 a contract between Google and Uruguay's communications company Antel enabled the latter to become the sixth largest international telecommunications services provider in South America.

Google is already involved in the deployment of the “Curie” cable under the Pacific Ocean between the US coast and the Chilean port of Valparaíso, plus the “Tannat” line linking the region's Atlantic coast with the United States.

On October 11, Canelones local authorities granted Google the permits to add the Uruguayan facility to the 13 already operating worldwide: six of them in the United States, three in Europe, three in Asia and the Chilean one.