Photo by: Reuters
The 14 350 km Sat-3/Wasc/Safe cable system connecting Europe to the west coast of Africa has been successfully upgraded, doubling the system capacity.
The fourth upgrade, undertaken by Alcatel-Lucent and the Sat-3/Wasc/Safe consortium, which includes Telkom, had seen the cable system upgraded from 420 Gb/s to 920 Gb/s in the northern segments and from 340 Gb/s to 800 Gb/s in the southern segments.
“This cable upgrade further addresses the global capacity demands such as fast Internet connectivity, data-hungry applications, high-quality video-on-demand and increasing social media use, thus enhancing customer experience,” explained Telkom CTO Alphonzo Samuels.
The upgrade, which had unlocked a sevenfold increase in the cable’s original design capacity through the use of Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced coherent technology, offered one of the lowest latency routes from Africa to Europe and catered for much-needed high-speed connectivity.
The system had 16 landing points in Europe, Africa and Asia, including in South Africa, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Spain and Portugal.
The Sat-3/Wasc/Safe system is owned and operated by Tata Communications, Angola Telecom, Benin Telecoms, China Telecommunications, Gabon Telecom, Ghana Telecommunications, Itissalat Al Maghrib, Korea Telecom, KPN Royal Dutch Telecom, Nigerian Telecommunications, Orange, Verizon, Vodacom Group and Vodafone, besides others.