First undersea cable between Africa and South America almost complete

The installation of the South Atlantic Cable System, the first direct fibre link between Africa and South America, is nearing completion.

Angola Cables said the cable will be 6,300km long and offer a capacity of 40Tbps between Brazil and Angola, with a latency of approximately 63 milliseconds.

“The wet-plant installation is progressing in accordance to the plan and the cables will arrive in Brazil at the beginning of February,” said the company.

Once the installation is complete, testing will begin.

Angola Cables expects to have the cable fully operational by Q3 2018.

“The introduction of SACS opens a new routing. South America will be able to reach Europe and Asia, avoiding the USA, and Africa will be able to reach the USA without linking through Europe,” said Angola Cables CEO António Nunes.

mybroadband.co.za