South Atlantic Cable System (SACS)
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| South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) | |
|---|---|
| Name | South Atlantic Cable System |
| Other names | SACS |
| Owners | Angola Cables |
| Operators | Angola Cables |
| Length km | 6600 |
| Design capacity tbps | 40 |
| Lit capacity tbps | 10 |
| First service | 2018 |
South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) The South Atlantic Cable System connects continents via a submarine fiber-optic link between Luanda, Angola and Fortaleza, Brazil. The system complements regional infrastructure such as ACE (cable system), SAT-3/WASC, WACS (cable system), and links to hubs like Lisbon, Cape Verde, São Paulo, and Benguela. SACS was developed by Angola Cables in collaboration with partners including Telebras, Eletrobras, and international vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent and SubCom.
Overview
SACS is a transoceanic submarine cable designed to reduce latency between Africa and South America by providing a direct route that bypasses traditional paths via Europe and North America. The system's primary landing stations are in Luanda and Fortaleza, with terrestrial extensions to metropolitan data centers and exchanges like Equinix, DE-CIX, LINX, and regional Internet exchange points such as NAPAfrica and IX.br. SACS interconnects with continental systems including SEACOM, EASSy, and MENA subsea cables to widen reach across Angola, Brazil, and partner nations.
History and Development
Conceived in the mid-2010s, SACS emerged amid growing demand from operators such as MTN Group, Vodacom, Claro Brasil, and cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Negotiations involved stakeholders like Ministry of Telecommunications (Angola), Ministry of Science and Technology (Brazil), and regional regulators including ANATEL and INACOM. The project drew upon precedent of earlier projects such as South Pacific Express and lessons from incidents affecting FLAG (cable system) and Hurricane Sandy-related outages, leading to resilience designs and redundancy agreements with operators like Telefónica and Airtel Africa.
Route and Technical Specifications
SACS follows a roughly 6,600 km submarine route across the South Atlantic Ocean between Luanda and Fortaleza, incorporating branching units for potential links to Luís Correia, Salvador, or Atlantic islands including Fernando de Noronha and Ascension Island. The system uses fiber pairs with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technologies provided by vendors such as Ciena, Huawei Marine, and Nokia. Design capacity was announced near 40 Tb/s with initial lit capacity around 10 Tb/s, employing optical amplifiers, erbium-doped fiber amplifiers akin to technologies used on SEA-ME-WE 3 and APCN 2, and repeaters for signal integrity.
Capacity, Ownership and Operations
Owned and operated by Angola Cables, SACS represents a strategic asset for telecom carriers and content providers including Telefonica Brasil, Globo, and international carriers like Level 3 Communications and CenturyLink. Capacity is offered wholesale to internet service providers (ISPs), mobile network operators such as MEO (Portugal) and Vodafone partners, and content delivery networks like Akamai and Cloudflare. Interconnection agreements align with peering policies at exchanges including IX.br, LINX, and private interconnect facilities in Fortaleza and Luanda.
Economic and Geopolitical Impact
SACS alters latency-sensitive routes between São Paulo and Johannesburg by creating more direct ties that influence trade corridors involving Brazil, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. The cable has implications for strategic communications in relation to partners such as China Communications Construction Company investments in Africa, cooperation with European Union digital strategies, and regional initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area. By enhancing connectivity, SACS supports sectors including financial services in São Paulo Stock Exchange, oil and gas operators like Sonangol and Petrobras, and research institutions such as University of São Paulo and Agostinho Neto University.
Construction and Deployment
Manufacture and laying contracted to submarine cable suppliers with experience on projects like Marea, Equiano, and Hawk; logistics involved vessels similar to CS Dependable and Pierre de Fermat for cable laying and repair. Coastal works required coordination with municipal authorities in Fortaleza and Luanda, maritime agencies including Capitania dos Portos and Instituto Marítimo e Portuário, and environmental assessments referencing conventions like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and regional frameworks. Commissioning occurred after system testing, optical-time domain reflectometer (OTDR) measurements, and acceptance trials with carriers and content providers.
Maintenance, Upgrades and Incidents
SACS maintenance follows industry practices exemplified by operators of SEA-US and TAT-14, using repair ships, spares stored at strategic depots, and coordinating Notices to Mariners with agencies such as IMO. Upgrades to increase lit capacity leverage advances from vendors such as Infinera and NeoPhotonics for higher-order modulation formats; resilience planning factors in risks observed in events like the 2011 submarine cable disruption in the Mediterranean and natural hazards including tropical cyclones affecting Atlantic routes. Operational incidents are subject to regional regulatory reporting to bodies like ANACOM and contingency routing through interconnection partners including ACE (cable system) and WACS (cable system).