ACE, the Africa Coast to Europe submarine cable to be operational in the second half of 2012, landed today at the submarine cable station of Penmarc'h, Brittany, France.
The 17,000 km cable will provide access to the global broadband network for the first time for Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sierra Leone. Mali and Niger will also be connected via the terrestrial network.
At the Penmarc'h station, ACE is connected to Sea-Me-We 3, the world's longest cable. The France Telecom-Orange Group is co-owner of this cable, which links Europe to Japan and Australia via India.
http://www.orange.com
- In June 2010, Alcatel-Lucent was awarded a turnkey contract valued at over US$500 million with Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), a newly formed consortium composed of 20 operators linking Cape Town in South Africa to Penmarch in France via a submarine cable network. With an ultimate design capacity of 5.12 Terabit per second (Tbps), ACE has built-in 40 Gbps. Its 17,000-km coastal route will link South Africa to France - via Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Tenerife (Spain) and Portugal -- and will have 21 landing points along the route. Commercial launch is expected in the first half of 2012.
