WACS Arrives Near Cape Town

Submarine communications cable the West Africa Cable System (WACS) has landed in Yzerfontein, near Cape Town. The 14,000km cable, which is expected to dock at 14 different landing points along the Western coast of Africa, before linking to the Canary Islands, Portugal and the UK, is set to commence commercial service in 1Q12. The total capacity of the system is 5.12Tbps, and at least 500Gbps will be lit at launch.

Investors in the WACS cable include South African telcos MTN, Vodacom, Telkom South Africa, Broadband Infraco and Neotel.


Angus Hay, head of strategic business development at Neotel, commented: ‘This is the dawn of a new era in the South African telecommunications industry. 


Since the launch of SEACOM and later EASSy, international bandwidth to South Africa has increased. The landing of WACS sets Neotel ahead of its competitors, as it is the only telecommunications operator that has direct access to all five undersea cables landing in South Africa: WACS, SEACOM, EASSy, SAT-3 and SAFE. 


For Neotel this means that our customers are highly unlikely to experience downtime since the traffic can be moved from one cable to another in case of any cable failure. The level of redundancy, reliability and security will now increase’.

Telecom Namibia Ready to Join WACS

Telecom Namibia says it is ‘ready’ to connect the country to the West African Cable System (WACS), a consortium high speed submarine system linking Africa to Europe, which it hopes will lead to higher-bandwidth, cheaper data and voice services for all end-users. The USD600 million fibre-optic cable has reached the shores of Namibia, whilst Telecom has already deployed infrastructure to link its landing station at Swakopmund to its domestic network and expects that commercial services could be launched by the second quarter of this year, reports local newspaper New Era. The project will give Namibia its first direct access to global submarine cable networks.

The WACS consortium consists of twelve companies: Angola Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, Congo Telecom, MTN, Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications, Portugal Telecom/Cabo Verde Telecom, Tata Communications/Neotel, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom. The main contractor is Alcatel-Lucent.

Telkom SA Prepares to Spread Into the Rest of Africa

SOUTH African Telecommunications operator, Telkom, has secured operating licences in east, south and west Africa, the company revealed on Monday in an interview.

Responding to questions, Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said the telecoms giant had secured operating licences in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Swaziland and Namibia.
“Telkom’s ambition is to become a significant Information Communication Technology (ICT) player in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the enterprise market.

“Apart from the satellite-based (SAT3) cable system, Telkom has invested in the new WACS, EASSy and SAFE submarine cables systems to further strengthen its position with regards to connectivity on the African continent,” said Chetty.

He said the operations in those countries consisted of consumer and enterprise solutions within the respective markets.

Chetty said Telkom would continue to service all these markets and acquire capabilities, through partnerships or own assets, to meet the demands of the local African enterprise and global multinational customers.
“The company continues to investigate opportunities in Africa and endeavours to expand into countries where customer demand warrants such actions.
“As far as the specific products and services are concerned, it is logical to utilise existing skills and capabilities acquired in the domestic market as far as possible when entering new markets,” said Chetty.