Brazil’s V.tal cuts ribbon on US$60mn Fortaleza datacenter

V.tal has opened its third Brazilian datacenter on Friday – a 300mn-real (US$59mn) Fortaleza site dubbed Big Lobster – after about one year of construction.

Considering datacenters, fiber expansion and modernization and upgrading works, the company invested 4.5bn reais in 2022, strategy VP Eduardo Silveira said at a press conference in response to a question by BNamericas.

Silveira did not specify capex guidance for 2023 and 2024, but it should be similar to last year's. Recently, V.tal secured US$470mn for investments through a capital increase underwritten by BTG with funds from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). 

Built by the company's subsidiary GlobeNet, Big Lobster has total power capacity of 4MW, and space for 400 racks in four data halls, with a first hall already being occupied. 

The site's inauguration event was attended by Ceará’s governor, Elmano de Freitas, as well as representatives of regulator Anatel and the communications ministry.

Around 50% of the projected capacity is already sold to customers, with further 25% under negotiation, the company's wholesale VP Bento Louro said, without disclosing the name of the potential client.

V.tal’s datacenter focus is on large carriers, internet providers, internet operators and OTTs.

Added to the capacity of the first site, an annex building that housed the landing station for GlobeNet's submarine cable was later transformed into a datacenter. V.tal has up to 5MW and 600 racks capacity in Fortaleza.

According to the company, the Fortaleza campus has ISO 27001 certification for colocation services, which guarantees permanent power availability, air conditioning, fire safety and physical and logistics access security.

Engineering VP Cícero Oliveiri said the company aims to obtain energy efficient datacenter certification CEEDA for all its sites this year.

The Fortaleza campus also houses the central traffic exchange point of Ceará state, which, according to the executives, is about to surpass Rio de Janeiro and become the second largest internet traffic site in Brazil after São Paulo.

This interconnection point allows operators and providers to exchange traffic directly and access content from the main OTTs worldwide.

Fortaleza is the most connected hub in the Americas, with 18 international submarine cables landing or departing at its shores – four of which being GlobeNet's and installed over 15 years ago.

EXPANSION

In addition to the two datacenters in Fortaleza, V.tal has one more site in Rio de Janeiro and an edge datacenter in Barranquilla, Colombia, totaling 10MW in IT power capacity.

A second site in Barranquilla should be ready by mid-year, BNamericas reported previously.

First announced in 2021, these sites are all under the umbrella of GlobeNet, controlled by BTG Pactual and absorbed by V.tal. 

Launched in August 2021, the V.tal JV is now 65.9%-owned by funds linked to BTG Pactual and 34.1%-owned by Oi.

In addition, V.tal bought in late 2022 property to build an edge datacenter in Rio Grande do Sul capital Porto Alegre. The site is also projected to have capacity of 4MW and will be retrofitted from an existing warehouse near the airport, but the company does not expect activation before 2024.

Overall, V.tal has 430,000km of terrestrial fiber, inherited from Oi, connecting more than 2,380 municipalities. This network currently comprises 20mn homes passed with fiber, with a goal of reaching 34mn by 2025.

According to Silveira, the company passed 5mn homes in 2022 and targets 4mn homes passed this year.

The group also has 26,000km of submarine cables, belonging to GlobeNet, which connect Brazil to Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Bermuda and the US.

“We already have contracts with customers for more than 1,000 of our more than 3,000 points of presence across the country, which have been transformed into micro edge datacenters, consolidating our strategic option in this business,” said Silveira.