- The agreement will combine the complementary infrastructure and wholesale capabilities of MEO and Asteo to develop and market new, geographically diverse cross-border connectivity solutions between Portugal and Spain.
- The cooperation will leverage Asteo's VENUS long-distance infrastructure to develop new connectivity alternatives in the center and north of the Iberian Peninsula, reinforcing route diversity, network resilience, and secure, high-capacity connectivity.
- By connecting Asteo's new terrestrial corridors to MEO's Portuguese network and Atlantic connectivity hubs, the partnership will create an integrated Iberian platform supporting operators, hyperscalers, data centers, cloud service providers, and AI infrastructures.
Asteo Red Neutra and MEO have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and commercialize new cross-border connectivity solutions between Spain and Portugal, combining Asteo's emerging long-haul corridors in Spain with MEO's extensive national and international infrastructure, its Atlantic connectivity centers, and its wholesale capabilities.
The agreement establishes the basis for long-term strategic cooperation, with the objective of providing resilient, high-capacity, and geographically diverse connectivity services throughout the Iberian Peninsula, responding to the growing needs of international operators, hyperscalers, cloud service providers, data centers, and wholesale operators. A key element of the cooperation will be the development of new connectivity solutions, building on the long-distance infrastructure being developed by Asteo through the VENUS project, supported by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility - Digital (CEF Digital) program, implemented by HaDEA.
Instead of creating a single new network, the cooperation will combine the complementary reach of Asteo and MEO to provide customers with additional and geographically diverse connectivity routes between Portugal and Spain. This greater route diversity is becoming increasingly important to strengthen the resilience of the European digital infrastructure, support digital sovereignty, and ensure secure, high-capacity connectivity for critical digital services.
A new digital corridor between the Atlantic and Central Europe.
VENUS is part of Asteo's strategy to develop a new long-distance connectivity corridor linking the Atlantic coast and the Iberian Peninsula to Madrid and, progressively, to Central Europe, creating an alternative to the traditional north-south cone axes. The project will initially reinforce connectivity between Portugal and Madrid through a new central cross-border corridor, while its progressive development towards northern Spain and France will contribute to the creation of a new diagonal Atlantic-Central Europe route. MEO will complement these new cross-border routes through its extensive fiber and transport infrastructure in Portugal, providing access to the country's main international connectivity assets. These include the new submarine cable hub under development in the Porto Metropolitan Area, the already established digital ecosystems of Lisbon and Sines, the cable landing stations in the Lisbon area, and MEO's international interconnection hub in Linda-a-Velha.
The combination of these networks is expected to provide greater geographic diversity and resilience, while supporting the growing traffic generated by submarine cable systems reaching the Atlantic coast, data centers, cloud platforms, and AI infrastructure across the Iberian Peninsula.
“The Iberian Peninsula is becoming an increasingly important international connectivity hub, driven by investment in submarine cables, the growth of data centers, cloud computing, and AI. VENUS was designed to support this evolution, creating new geographically diverse land corridors across the Iberian Peninsula and progressively towards Central Europe. Our cooperation with MEO is an important step in transforming this infrastructure into a truly Iberian connectivity platform, increasing route diversity, resilience, and secure high-capacity connectivity for international customers,” said Pedro Abad, CEO of Asteo, a Rurix company.
“This partnership will allow MEO to leverage part of its next-generation fiber network to connect the new submarine cable hub in Porto to the already established digital ecosystem in Lisbon, including cable landing stations in the area and our international interconnection hub in Linda-a-Velha. At the same time, it will extend resilient, high-capacity connectivity to new AI infrastructure projects being developed across the country, helping to build a more distributed, competitive, and future-proof Iberian digital ecosystem,” said Ana Carla Sousa, Senior Director of MEO Wholesale Solutions.
This cooperation is expected to support a range of wholesale services, including dark fiber, high-capacity wavelengths, and DWDM solutions, as well as customized connectivity services designed to meet the requirements of international carriers, hyperscalers, data centers, cloud service providers, and other customers who need secure, resilient, and high-capacity connectivity.
About Asteo Red Neutra
Asteo Red Neutra , a Rurix group company, is a wholesale telecommunications infrastructure operator focused on FTTH networks, passive infrastructure, and long-distance connectivity services in Spain. Founded in 2021 and supported by the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF), managed by Cube Infrastructure Managers, the company deploys and operates open access digital infrastructure in rural areas of Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, and Galicia. In addition to its core activity, Asteo promotes the development of alternative connectivity corridors and long-distance transport infrastructure in the Iberian Peninsula.
About MEO Wholesale Solutions
MEO Wholesale Solutions is the business unit of MEO - Communications and Multimedia Services, responsible for the development and management of services for the telecommunications sector, focused on relevant players such as telecommunications operators, internet and cloud service providers, content distributors, as well as global owners of space, terrestrial and maritime networks. It provides terrestrial, satellite and submarine cable connectivity infrastructure for national and international operators. MEO is a market leader in the communications sector in Portugal, operating in all segments of the ICT sector: fixed and mobile communications, television and internet services, multimedia, data, advertising, data centers and cloud, supported by a state-of-the-art fiber optic and 5G network.