News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Brazil, EU Agree To Huge Underwater Cable Project

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

There is a huge project off the coast of Brazil that looks like it will be built soon: An undersea communications cable stretching from Portugal to Brazil.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Brazil and the European Union agreed, yesterday, to lay the cable across the Atlantic Ocean. It will cost an estimated $185 million and this is a response to NSA spying.

MONTAGNE: Brazil is no stranger to prying eyes. Leaked documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed spying on Brazil's president. And there were even reports the NSA targeted Petrobras, the oil company thinking of building those floating cities we just heard about.

GREENE: For now, Brazil relies on U.S. undersea cables to carry almost all of its, communicates to Europe. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.