Work starts on ACE cable

Picture: Kacper Pempel

Picture: Kacper Pempel

Published Jan 7, 2016

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Gaorone - French telecommunications giant Orange and members of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) consortium have started laying a 5 000 km long under-sea cable.

The cable runs from Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea to Cape Town in South Africa and aims to expand broadband internet and digital data connectivity between Africa and Europe.

The ACE consortium said the project was a continuation of the first phase which to date has laid 12 000 km of cable which now connects 14 north-west African states to the European Union through Portugal, France and Spain through the Canary Islands.

The connected African states include Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

“For this second phase, the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system is to be extended to South Africa, a 5 000km extension from the island of Sao Tome and Principe, in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea,” the consortium said in a statement recently.

“When Phase II is completed, ACE will cover a total distance of 17 000km and will allow up to 25 countries greater access to high-speed internet.

“ACE uses the most advanced high-speed broadband fibre-optic technology, called Wavelength Division Multi-plexing (WDM), which allows capacity to be increased as and when needed without additional submarine modifications being required.

“Overall capacity will be boosted to 12.8Tbps using 100-GPS (Gigabyte Per Second) technology, which supports high-capacity connectivity networks,” the consortium said in the statement.

AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY

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