Please contact me if you’d like a copy of the map in SVG format.
For a history of African undersea cables, have a look at this presentation. If you’re interested in seeing how these cables are changing access, Stanford University’s PINGer project is monitoring the impact of Seacom and other east coast cables as they come online. Also check out the UbuntuNet Alliance’s map of terrestrial fibre in Africa. Finally, for a more comprehensive look at undersea cables, check out Greg Mahlknecht’s map of undersea cables.
| Seacom | EASSy | TEAMs | WACS | MainOne | GLO1 | ACE | SAex | WASACE | BRICS | |
| Cost (millions of USD)
|
650 | 265 | 130 | 600 | 240 | 800 | 700 | 500 | ? | ? |
| Length (km)
|
13,700 | 10,000 | 4,500 | 14,000 | 7,000 | 9,500 | 14,000 | 9,000 | 9,000 | 34,000 |
| Capacity
|
1.28 Tb/s | 4.72 Tb/s | 1.28 Tb/s | 5.12 Tb/s | 1.92 Tb/s | 2.5 Tb/s | 5.12 Tb/s | 12.8 Tb/s | 40 Tb/s | 12.8 Tb/s |
| Completion
|
July 2009 | July 2010 | Sept 2009 | Q3 2011 | Q2 2010 | Q3 2010 | Q2 2012 | Q2 2013 | 2014 | 2014 |
| Ownership
|
USA 25%
SA 50% Kenya 25% |
African
Telecom Operators 90% |
TEAMs (Kenya) 85%
Etisalaat (UAE) 15% |
Telkom
Vodacom MTN Tata (Neotel) Infraco et al |
US Nigeria, AFDB | France Telecom et al See below for full list |
? | ? | ? |
Investor detail:
Seacom (http://www.seacom.mu)
Industrial Promotion Services (25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (USD 75 million)
(Kenya – founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan)
VenFin Limited (25%) – USD 75 million)
Herakles Telecom LLC (backed by Blackstone) (25%), New York-based lead company, no website (USD 75 million)
Convergence Partners (12,5%) – USD 37.5 million
Shanduka Group (12.5%) – USD 37.5 million
EASSy (http://www.eassy.org/)
EASSy is 90% African-owned although that ownership is underwritten by a substantial investment by Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) including World Bank/IFC, EIB, AfDB, AFD, and DfW. Total DFI investment is apparently $70.7 million, with $18.2 million coming from IFC, 14.5 million from AfDB. This is a smaller amount than the originally advertised $120 million investment from DFIs.
South African investors in EASSY include Telkom/Vodacom ($18.9 million) , MTN ($40.3 million), and Neotel (~$11 million).
WIOCC, an SPV created to facilitate open access is the largest shareholder, with 29%. WIOCC consortium members include: Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Gilat Satcom Nigeria Ltd., the Government of Seychelles, the Lesotho Telecommunications Authority, ONATEL Burundi, Telkom Kenya Ltd., Telecommunicacões de Mocambique (TDM), U-COM Burundi, Uganda Telecom Ltd., Zantel Tanzania and most recently, TelOne Zimbabwe and Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company (LPTIC)
Other investors in the system include Bharti Airtel Limited of India, British Telecommunications, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, France Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, Saudi Telecom Company, Comores Telecom, Sudan Telecom Company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Telecom Malagasy, Zambia Telecommunications Company, Zanzibar Telecom.
TEAMs
85 per cent of the cable is owned by TEAMs (Kenya) Ltd and the rest by Etisalaat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The TEAMS (Kenya) Ltd holding breaks down as follows:
- 42.5% – Telkom Kenya Ltd
- 22.5% – Safaricom Ltd
- 10% – Kenya Data Networks Ltd
- 10% – Econet/Essar Telecom Ltd
- 5% – Wananchi Group
- 3.75% – Jamii Telecom Ltd
- 1.25% – Broadband Access/AccessKenya Ltd
- 1.25% – Africa Fibrenet (Uganda) Ltd
- 1.25% – InHand Ltd
- 1.25% – iQuip Ltd
- 1.25% – Flashcom Ltd
West African Cable System (WACS)
- Telkom
- Vodacom
- MTN
- Tata Communications (Neotel)
- Broadband Infraco
- Cable & Wireless
- Portugal Telecoms
- Congo Telecoms (formerly Sotelco)
- Telecom Namibia
- Togo Telecom
- OCPT (Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications)
- Angola Telecom
MaIN OnE
Privately owned. On June 1, 2009, the African Development Bank confirmed USD 66 million financing for the project.
Africa Coast to Europe (ACE)
ACE consortium signatories:
- Baharicom Development Company
- Cable Consortium of Liberia
- Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações
- Côte d’Ivoire Telecom
- Expresso Telecom Group
- France Telecom
- Gambia Telecommunications Company
- International Mauritania Telecom
- Office Congolais des Postes et Télécommunications
- Orange Cameroun
- Orange Guinée
- Orange Mali
- Orange Niger
- PT Comunicações
- Republic of Equatorial Guinea
- Republic of Gabon
- Sierra Leone Cable Company
- Sonatel
- Sotelgui
Hi Charles. Q1 2012 would be my bet as well.
So much for playing games this december. :<
Still! Q1 is fine, happy its not 'a couple of years' ,like stated in the newspaper.
Hey Steve,
The ACE cable just landed in Monrovia, Liberia. It is a great day for Liberia. What are your thoughts or what do you see as some of the challenges and opportunities of ACEs presence in Liberia?
Hope to hear from you,
Darren
Hi Darren,
Agree! The ACE cable landing was a great day for sure!! I’ve posted photos of the event to Facebook.
Regards,
–Bob
[...] http://manypossibilities.net/… [...]
Has the ACE cable landed in Guinea Conakry? If so who are the owners of the cable?
Hi Linwood. Orange Guinee (http://www.orange-guinee.com/) are the owners AFAIK
Hi Steve – you need to take a look at the new WASACE cable announced today. It’s going to link Africa with South America, and then onwards to North America and Europe. This one will look nice on your map!
http://www.capacitymagazine.com/Article/2939309/News/Multi-continent-spanning-WASACE-submarine-cable-system-announced.html
Checking them out. Thanks for the tip!
[...] to East Africa—all traffic went through expensive, slow, satellite links. Since 2009, new undersea cables and land-based fiber-optics networks have brought massive capacity to East Africa. Kenya’s wildly [...]
Steve, do you happen to have any numbers for the Sierra Leone Cable Company?
Rich
Hi Rich. Nothing concrete I’m afraid other than the news of the USD31M loan from the World Bank
Hi Steve,
I see undersea cables in your figure but actually internal inter-country cables not shown, I wish we can add that.
moreover World Bank plan is to deploy Fibre cable from Membassa to Juba, are you aware of it?
Hi George. Busy working on mapping terrestrial fibre links (see http://manypossibilities.net/afterfibre/) although it is not going as fast as I had initially hoped. We are currently stalled waiting for developers to produce a rendering engine for the map. I hope to have more to announce on this shortly.
Guys i need some updates onm the stats of the impact of undersea cables across africa. Can anybody provide any or some references???
Can someone provide me statstics or information/references on the impact of submarine cables around Africa and the rest of the world
Hi Richard. There is some evidence in this World Bank report http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/Broadband_for_Africa.pdf and there is a commercial study by Frost and Sullivan available for purchase at http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/segment-toc.pag?segid=9844-00-06-00-00 However, any of these studies are challenged to provide direct evidence of impact simply because there are so many other links in the connectivity chain before you get to the user.
[...] to East Africa—all traffic went through expensive, slow, satellite links. Since 2009, new undersea cables and land-based fiber-optics networks have brought massive capacity to East Africa. Kenya’s [...]
[...] L’essor passe par la communication et l’échange d’informations. La fibre optique permettra de réduire la fracture numérique de l’Afrique. Le désert numérique va verdir ! [...]
[...] Cliché repris avec autorisation du site de Stephen Song [...]
[...] example ACE (also 5,120 Gb /s) this year, and next year, SAex ( a whopping 12,800 Gb / s)Referenceshttp://manypossibilities.net/afr…http://www.capacitymagazine.com/…http://appfrica.com/2009/11/13/i…This answer .Please specify [...]
great information… thanks so much!
Hi Steve,
I can see another submarine cable in black connecting at some point at the cape and Mtunzini then to Asia. What s the name, length, capacity and who are the share holders?
Hi Richard. That is the SAFE cable which is effectively an extension of the SAT3 cable into Asia. See http://www.safe-sat3.co.za/
Hi Steve,
Just want your confirmation of the landing of LION 2 cable in Mombasa and any details related to its capacity, length and link.
Thanks
Richard
Hi Richard. My understanding is that the cable has landed but will not be lit until sometime later this year. This article suggests that it will be in the 1st half of 2012 which is probably a good guess.
Dear Alcatel-Lucent, dear Steve. although this might not be constructive I have to tell you that internet down here in southern Africa is wobbly with lots of failures. The people on the ground are waiting and hoping and waiting for WACS to get lit asap. Please speed it up guys.
Would be nice to include an additional row showing Jhb – London round-trip-time for each
WACS to launch May 2012: http://www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com/Article/2983212/Sectors/25199/West-Africa-Cable-System-completed.html
Hi Richard,
How is Baharicom Development Company coming? Are they still part of the ACE consortium?
That is the 64,000 dollar question. Theoretically they are responsible for ACE from Sao Tome south to South Africa. But if a company were to fly any lower under the radar, they’d be tunnelling underground.
Hi Rich, Have you heard of any of the other signatories having problems in the ACE consortium?
[...] cables that will be installed to improve internet penetration in Africa. See Steve Song’s map here. This will hopefully mean that schools will benefit from this and teachers can use more online [...]
Hi Steve,
Is the ACE cable in Freetown, Sierra Leone active? If so, what is the next step for the government and the people of Sierra Leone? Internet in Sierra Leone is too slow, unreliable and expensive.
Thanks
Hi Akinola. ACE has landed but isn’t scheduled to go live until some time in the second half of this year. Roll on that happy day.
Hi Steve,
Great site, thanks for all the info. Quick question, do you have any idea who will be handling ACE in Nigeria? I don’t see any Nigerian companies as part of the consortium.
Thanks.
I don’t know actually. France Telecom must have partnered with one of the cable operators because they have no major investment in Nigerian telecoms to my knowledge, but I am not sure which.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrestrial_fibre_optic_cable_projects_in_Africa#Nigeria
We can rule out Glo and MainOne. Maybe Phase3 or Suburban? Will try to find out.
[...] map image has been extracted from a map on manypossibilities.net Share this:EmailShareDiggRedditPrintRelated [...]
Hi Steve
Just read the new article about the new SA – Brazil cable.
Just wondering about capacity etc.
Also read somewhere that WACS is coming online in May 2012…
Hi Jaco. No word on capacity that I have been able to detect. Have been looking for more news about it but that is the only article I have seen.
As to WACS, May is a possibility but I suspect it is likely to be Q3 some time.
Hi Steve
I see WASACE on http://www.cablemap.info/
Indeed, I saw that, as have Telegeography. I’ve been hanging fire waiting for some more noise about the project to appear. I am usually a little slow to add projects.
[...] of adopting such technologies in African countries, especially by building on the rapidly expanding broadband infrastructure and mobile [...]
[...] incident démontre la grande dépendance du continent africain aux câbles de fibre optique, qui constituent l’infrastructure d’Internet. Les câbles sous-marins Teams et [...]
[...] http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ By digmediaman • Posted in Uncategorized 0 [...]
When WACS will be finally relased?
There has been no formal announcement of a specific date, to my knowledge. Some time between May and September is my guess.
This article mentions MTN Nigeria going live on WACS in two weeks – mid of April:
http://nationalmirroronline.net/business/business-and-finance/35592.html
This article mentions commercial services being available from May on:
http://www.techcentral.co.za/telkoms-broadband-future-all-the-details/30618/
To me, it is really strange that there is so little communication about that current state of implementation and launch dates.
First, that is awesome news. I was really expecting something more like July. Second, I agree it is very frustrating. Makes you more appreciative of companies like Seacom et al that do take the time to keep the public informed.
Hi Steve,
yes, it is really strange and frustrating and I’d say I only believe it when I see it. MTN Nigeria says it will go online in two weeks from now. That was said on 6th April (http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159077).
Still in SA/Nam, you don’t here anything…