Orange and other members of the ACE consortium have announced the launch of the cable in Cotonou, Benin, and Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands. The connection of these two station is part of the cable’s second deployment phase. It now connects 18 countries, including France and Portugal, and Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. Two landlocked countries, Mali and Niger, are connected via a terrestrial extension.
By the end of the second phase, it will be extended to South Africa to cover 17,000 km, connecting to Cameroon, Angola and Namibia. The WDM cable’s overall capacity will be boosted to 12.8 Tbps using 100-Gbps technology. The construction of the cable amounts to about USD 700 million of investment for the consortium, with USD 250 million coming from Orange and its subsidiaries in several of the connected countries.
