Work begins on first ever direct subsea link between Africa and South America

Angola Cables has taken a step closer to completion of the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), the first ever direct link between Africa and South America.

The subsea cable has 40 Tbps of capacity that will extend more than 6,500 kilometres from the Angolan coast in the municipality of Quissama to Fortaleza, Brazil – the SACS system is being constructed by NEC Corporation.

Angolan Minister of Telecommunications and Technologies, José Carvalho attended the launch event in Sangano, Angola, in addition to a number of local and international business leaders and the shareholders and guests of Angola Cables.

According to Angola Cables, the installation of SACS is considered to be a strategic project for Angola to advance the region's digital economy and to improve global communications.

On its completion (in addition to associated elements such as data centers and Internet Exchange Points), Angola Cables asserts SACS will offer a paradigm shift in Africa's telecommunications sector.

At the moment, it takes around 300 milliseconds to connect between Angola and Brazil, however, with SACS the latency – the time lag between a data packet being sent and received – is expected to be reduced to approximately 60 milliseconds.

CEO of Angola Cables, António Nunes says that for Angolans, the the time to access content available in America – the largest centre for the production and aggregation of digital content and services – will improve fivefold.

"Angola is becoming one of the telecommunications hubs in sub-Saharan Africa," says Nunes.

"Current cable systems, such as WACS, together with the SACS and Monet cables systems – complemented by local data centers – will improve connectivity, but also economically benefit Angola and the surrounding regions as tech companies requiring high connectivity establish and grow their operations in Africa."

According to Angola Cables, the installation phase of the cable on the Angolan Shore is one of the most critical aspects of the project, as there are many levels of interaction and activity that are required with several entities simultaneously, therefore constituting a critical and high-risk moment.

The protection of both the teams involved and the cable is one of the aspects analysed and thereore the work is rigorous and well-planned.

"The installation of SACS represents the realisation of a dream, a development that reflects our ability to find solutions and overcome challenges, always having in mind the final objective," concludes Nunes.