The cable uses Alcatel-Lucent’s 100 Gbps submarine technology, and on completion of the Phase Two extension, the ACE system will deliver an overall design capacity of 12.8 Tbps, significantly speeding up delivery of broadband services and content.
Lead ACE consortium partner Orange said the consortium has invested around USD 700 million in the construction of the cable, which includes USD 250 million from Orange and its subsidiaries. Nearly 12,000 km of fibre optic cable are already used to connect eighteen countries: France, Portugal, the Canary Islands (Spain), Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome & Principe. Two landlocked countries, Mali and Niger, are connected via a terrestrial extension.
To date, 13 of the 16 countries connected by ACE are in Africa and seven of the African ones were connected to the global internet backbone for the first time since it was switched on in December 2012. The ACE consortium consists of 19 operators.
