The West Africa Cable System (WACS) is a

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...

linking

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

along the west coast of Africa that was constructed by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

. The cable consists of four fibre pairs and is 14,530 km in length, linking from Yzerfontein in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

of South Africa to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in the

. It has 14 landing points, 12 along the western coast of Africa (including Cape Verde and Canary Islands) and 2 in Europe (Portugal and England) completed on land by a cable termination station in London. The total cost for the cable system is $650 million. WACS was originally known as the Africa West Coast Cable (AWCC) and was planned to branch to South America but this was dropped and the system eventually became the West African Cable System.

History

On 6 August 2023, the cable system snapped simultaneously with the SAT-3 Cable System after a rock fall in the Congo Canyon. Internet Speeds in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

were impacted, despite new cable systems such as Google Owned Equiano recently landing in the country.

Landing points

The cable has landed in the following countries and locations: #

, Yzerfontein #

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, Sangano near

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

, Muanda # Republic of Congo, Matombi near

Pointe Noire Pointe-Noire (; , with the letter d following French spelling standards) is the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo, following the capital of Brazzaville, and an autonomous Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, Limbe, near

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Lekki Lekki is a city in Lagos State, Nigeria. It is located to the south-east of Lagos city. Lekki is a naturally formed peninsula, adjoining to its west Victoria Island and Ikoyi districts of Lagos, with the Atlantic Ocean to its south, Lagos Lag ...

, near

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

, Afidenyigba near

Lomé Lomé ( , ) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Togo, largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, Nungua near

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

, Palmarejo near Praia #

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Telde(el Goro) near Las Palmas #

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Sesimbra Sesimbra () is a municipality of Portugal, in the Setúbal District, lying at the foothills of the ''Serra da Arrábida'', a mountain range between Setúbal and Sesimbra. Due to its particular position at the Península de Setúbal, Setúbal Bay, ...

near Seixal #

, Brean near Highbridge (fiber link is extended by underground cable to

) 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. While all earlier submarine cables were terminated at South Africa's international submarine gateways in Melkbosstrand or Mtunzini the WACS cable has been landed at Yzerfontein in order to reduce risk of complete isolation from the rest of the world in the case of damages by earthquakes or a large ship dragging its anchor.

Design capacity

The planned design capacity of WACS was 3.84 Tbit/s when the project agreement was signed in 2008. When delivered in 2012 the initial design capacity was 5.12 Tbit/s. An upgrade delivered by Huawei Marine in December 2015 using WDM Soft Decision FEC and bit interleaved coded modulation advanced decoders permitting the design capacity to be increased to 14.5 Tbit/s.

Innovations

Instead of powering the 236 undersea

optical amplifier An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback fro ...

s and the 12 Submarine branching units along the cable by a single conductor which would require the voltage to be well over 12,000 to 14,000 V in the order of some 24,000 V DC, the system is supplied by two independent rings from Europe to West Africa and West Africa to South Africa, thus reducing the power requirements to around 12,000 V DC. Branching units are designed to keep the main trunk intact in case of failure. Repairing a branch will not affect the traffic on the main cable. Landing stations support wavelength pass through which means a wavelength coming into a landing station does not just stop there but carries on. This feature allows future upgrade to be carried out without the necessity to have to upgrade each landing point.

Topology

One of the four fibre pairs is a direct route from South Africa to Europe, a so-called ''express lane''. The second and third fibre pairs are designed as a ''semi-express lane'', one with two hops, from South Africa to West Africa and West Africa to Europe and the other with three stops. The fourth fibre pair is an ''omnibus fibre'' that stops off at all landing ports en route. *Fibre Pair one known as the Express lane (South Africa and Portugal) *Fibre Pair two (South Africa to Nigeria to Portugal) *Fibre Pair three (South Africa to Angola to DRC to Ivory Coast to Portugal) *Fibre Pair four (All WACS Landing Stations)

Construction and ownership

The following South African companies were announced as participants in the construction and maintenance of the cable system.

MTN Group MTN Group Limited (formerly M-Cell) is a South Africa, South African multinational corporation and mobile telecommunications provider. Its head office is in Johannesburg. MTN is among the List of mobile network operators, largest mobile netwo ...

has invested $90 million in the cable making it the largest investor, and in return will receive 11% of the initial capacity of the cable. *

: a South African-based regional mobile operator * Neotel: South Africa's second fixed line operator - Liquid Telecom bought Neotel in 2018/19 * Telkom South Africa: South Africa's incumbent fixed line operator * Vodacom: a South African-based regional mobile operator * Gateway Communications: a pan-African wholesale connectivity and telecommunications provider * Broadband Infraco: a South African state-owned telecom infrastructure company On 8 April 2009, the following companies signed the WACS Construction and Maintenance Agreement and formed the final consortium: The WACS consortium includes 12 companies: # Vodacom # Togo Telecom #

Telkom (South Africa) Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority State-owned enterprise, state-owned (55.3%) with the South African ...

# Telecom Namibia #

Tata Communications Tata Communications Limited (previously known as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) is an Indian telecommunications company. It was a government-owned telecommunications service provider before being sold to the Tata Group in 2002 under the Third ...

/ Neotel # Portugal Telecom/ Cabo Verde Telecom # Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications #

# Congo telecom #

Cable & Wireless Worldwide Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC (informally Cable & Wireless) was a British multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom. It was formed in 2010 by the split of Cable & Wireless plc into two ...

# Broadband Infraco # Angola Cables The supply contract was signed the same day between the consortium members and

Submarine Networks. Subsea cable laying operations began 15 July 2010 with the departure of Île de Bréhat vessel from Alcatel-Lucent's submarine cable's factory of

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

loaded with almost 6000 km of submarine cables. The cable was simultaneously laid by Alcatel-Lucent's cable ships Île de Bréhat and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

Île de Sein. Subsea cable laying operations were officially finished 19 April 2011 with the landing of the cable on a Yzerfontein's beach in South Africa. The cable became operational on 11 May 2012 by the launching of the cable in South Africa The 4-fibre pair submarine cable system was constructed at an approximate total project cost of US$650 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wacs (Cable System) Submarine communications cables in the North Atlantic Ocean Submarine communications cables in the South Atlantic Ocean Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean 2012 establishments in Africa 2012 establishments in Europe