SAT-3/WASC/SAFE parties and Alcatel-Lucent have completed the fourth upgrade of the SAT-3/WASC undersea cable system, which went live during the first half of 2014.
This latest upgrade has doubled the current system capacity, further positioning SAT-3/WASC as a leading submarine cable facility on the sub-Saharan African coastline.
Operating at 40Gbps, the SAT-3/WASC cable system was upgraded from 420Gbps to 920Gbps in the northern segments, north of Ghana, and from 340Gbps to 800Gbps in the southern segments.
Operated with full in-system protection, the system offers one of the lowest latency routes from Africa to Europe with connectivity between Europe, West Coast of Africa and southern Africa with landings in South Africa, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Spain and Portugal.
Overall, this fourth upgrade enables a sevenfold increase in SAT-3/WASC’s original design capacity through the use of Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced coherent technology.
Furthermore, SAFE provides the shortest route and therefore lowest latency between Southern Africa and Asia with connectivity via South Africa, Mauritius, Reunion, India and Malaysia. With sixteen landing points spread between Europe, Africa and Asia, the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cables provide access to global markets and footprint, offering to customers seamless and diverse connectivity to the rest of the world.
Johan Meyer, management committee chairman of SAT-3/WASC/SAFE consortium says: “SAT-3/WASC/SAFE has a proven track record backed by 12 years of operational experience and sound financial stability, allowing for further cable upgrades and optimum network performance, both regionally and globally.
The additional capacity available with the fourth upgrade will contribute significantly in meeting the on-going demand in the markets served by SAT3/WASC/SAFE.”
Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, says: “Carriers, service providers, multimedia and content providers all are expanding their networks to support Internet and data center applications, while protecting their existing investments.
Alcatel-Lucent’s unique submarine solution delivers ease of upgrade and scalability to multi-terabit capacity, offering a staged migration combining technological and economic benefits. This upgrade allows quicker service turn-up to meet customers’ expectations for anywhere, anytime access to broadband applications, storage and computing.”