The African continent is increasingly connected with the world through submarine cables. The company Angola Cables announced the first direct optical connection between Angola and the United States.
“By optically interconnecting the deployed MONET and South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), Angola Cables can further reduce latency between North American content providers and fast-growing data consumer markets in Africa”, says Angelo Gama, CTO of Angola Cables.
+ In a network, latency is synonymous with delay. It is an expression of how long it takes for a data packet to go from one point to another.
The SACS, owned and managed by Angola Cables, consists of four fiber pairs between Fortaleza (Brazil) and Luanda (Angola). Already the MONET system is part of a consortium that includes Angola Cables and Google and connects Fortaleza to Florida.
The SACS, owned and managed by Angola Cables, consists of four fiber pairs between Fortaleza (Brazil) and Luanda (Angola). Already the MONET system is part of a consortium that includes Angola Cables and Google and connects Fortaleza to Florida.
Technology companies, content providers and users from sub-Saharan Africa will benefit most from the venture. “For example, the connection between Johannesburg and New York will be reduced by up to 18% using the SACS and MONET direct fiber-optic connection,” says Gama.
Partnership with Nokia
“We are employing technology that makes more efficient use of existing subsea cables. This connection will record the highest bit rates and lowest latency between Africa and the US through direct routing, ”says Carlo Corti, Nokia’s director of optical business development for the Middle East and Africa. “We are proud to help our customers establish an optical path that can provide content and information for the benefit of people in Africa and the US.”
The testing of this direct optical route between Africa and the US was successfully completed on November 11, 2019, and the network is now available for commercial use, according to Angola Cables.