WACS (West Africa Cable System) is a planned submarine communications cable linking South Africa with the United Kingdom along the west coast of Africa. The cable is expected to land in the following African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The landings in Namibia, the DRC, the Republic of Congo and Togo will provide the first direct connections for these countries to the global submarine cable network.The design capacity of WACS is at least 3.84 Tbps.
Participants that have been announced include the following South African Carriers:
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Neotel: South Africa’s second fixed line operator
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Telkom South Africa: South Africa’s incumbent fixed line operator
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MTN Group: A South African based regional mobile operator
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Vodacom: A South African based regional mobile operator
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Broadband Infraco: A South African state-owned telecom infrastructure company
On 8 April 2009, the following companies signed the WACS Construction and Maintenance Agreement:
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Angola Telecom,
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Broadband Infraco,
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Cable & Wireless,
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MTN Group,
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Telecom Namibia,
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Portugal Telecom,
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Sotelco,
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Tata Communications (Neotel),
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Telkom South Africa,
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Togo Telecom
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Vodacom.
A supply contract has been signed between the consortium members and Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks. The cable is expected to be completed in 2011.
