SACS (South Atlantic Cable System)
Cable typeFibre-optic
FateCompleted
Construction beginning2016; 8 years ago (2016) [1]
Construction finished2018; 6 years ago (2018) [2]
First trafficMid-2018 (ready for service)[3]
Design capacity40 Tb/s[2]
Landing points
Area servedSouth Atlantic
Owner(s)Angola Cables

The South Atlantic Cable System or SACS (Portuguese: Sistema de Cabo do Atlântico Sul),[4] is a submarine communications cable in the South Atlantic Ocean linking Luanda, Angola with Fortaleza, Brazil with a leg connecting the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha as well.[5][6] It is the first low latency routing between Africa and South America.[6]

The undersea cable measures 6,165 km in length[2] and has been designed with 100Gbps coherent WDM technology - with 4 fiber pairs and offers a total capacity of 40 Tbit/s between Brazil and Angola.

In September 2018 Angola Cables announced that the SACS cable was on-line and ready to begin commercial operation.[7] It was also reported at this point that it was NEC who was supplying the technology for the cable.[8]

With SACS cable now in operation, data traffic between Angola and Brazil will no longer have to pass through Europe and the US, as was the case previously. The South Atlantic Cable System is owned and operated by Angola Cables.

It is expected that the SACS will cut data traffic costs between South America, Africa and onwards to Asia by 80%.[9]

In Fortaleza the SACS is interconnected to Seabras-1 while the Angolan end provides onward connectivity by the SAT-3/WASC cable.[2] According to its initiators it will have a lot of demand, mainly because it will be the first undersea cable in the South Atlantic linking the African continent to Latin America.[10] The only other planned cable to potentially compete with SACS is the South Atlantic Express cable planned to enter service in 2020.[11]

Construction costs are expected to amount to $278 million,[12] funded by Angola Cables,[10] a consortium of major Angolan telecoms companies (Angola Telecom with 51% of the capital, Unitel with 31%, MSTelcom with 9%, Movicel with 6%, and Startel with 3%).

Maps

See also

References

  1. ^ "Construction of SACS cable to start in Q1 2014". article. TeleGeography. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e Angola Cables (October 2013). "State of Subsea 2013 Presentation". presentation. APTelecom, Inc. p. 23. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  3. ^ Angola Cables Newsletter "Data Gathering Meeting at PTC '15" from 7 January 2015
  4. ^ Lusa - Portuguese News Agency (15 October 2014). "Cabo Angola emite garantia de 205 milhões para fibra ótica". Notícias ao Minuto. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  5. ^ "Telebras provides details of new submarine cable network". article. TeleGeography. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Angola Cables announces launch of SACS subsea system". article. Submarine Telecoms Forum. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  7. ^ "Angola Cables lights up world's first submarine cable linking Africa to the Americas". Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  8. ^ "NEC completes construction of SACS cable". Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  9. ^ "Brazil-Angola undersea cable link planned". article. Global Telecoms Business. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  10. ^ a b "Undersea cable to link Brazil and Angola". article. Macauhub. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  11. ^ "SHG Signs Mou with Saex to Deliver Submarine Cable Project". 27 October 2017.
  12. ^ "Angola-Brazil fibre optic cable starts operations". article. telecompaper. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2013.

External links

Transatlantic communications cables
Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean
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