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All the big undersea cables that have connected South Africa to the world
Several recent undersea cable breaks have made South Africans more aware of the vast networks that link the country to the global Internet.
However, many might not know that undersea telecommunications cables have been connecting South Africa to the rest of the world for nearly 145 years.
Wireless communication has improved drastically and is certainly possible over long distances. However, wired connectivity provides greater capacity, speed, and lower latency.
While underground or overground cables are widely used to connect countries on the same continent, inter-continental communication inevitably requires crossing water at some point.
Running the cables along the ocean floor by simply dropping them off ships travelling between two destinations turned out to work perfectly fine.
The first deployment of undersea cables for long-distance communication was an insulated electric telegraph cable laid between England and France in 1850.
The first intercontinental connection linking Europe and the United States of America followed, with a cable between Ireland and Newfoundland going live in 1858.
By 1871, all the world’s populated continents were connected via a combination of terrestrial and submarine cables.
Following telegraph cables were telephone cables and, eventually, data communication cables that supported the Internet.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the world’s undersea cables are estimated to span a collective 1.5 million kilometres.
Ten undersea cables currently connect South Africa to the rest of the world, providing access to a wealth of content and services hosted on international servers.
Below are the key moments in South Africa’s history of undersea cable connections, starting with those that supported telegraphy and telephony and moving on to Internet connections.
1879 — First submarine cable between South Africa and Europe
The first-ever submarine cable connecting South Africa to the rest of the world was a single-channel electrical cable rolled out by the South African Telegraph Company.
Completed in December 1879, the cable ran along the east coast of Africa from Durban and Zanzibar to Aden in Yemen, before extending into terrestrial telegraph networks in Europe.
Cable station in 1879
1889 — First west coast submarine cable from South Africa to Europe
Ten years later, another telegraph cable was run along Africa’s west coast, connecting Cape Town to Europe via St Helena and the Ascension Islands.
Cape Town telegraph office in 1889
1968 – SAT-1, first undersea telephone cable
The first undersea cable that could carry telephonic communication between South Africa and the rest of the world was SAT-1, laid in 1968.
Manufactured by Standard Telephone and Cables, it ran from Melkbosssstrand, about 30km north of Cape Town on South Africa’s western coast, to Sesimbra in Portugal.
The cable was co-axial and carried 360 telephone circuits.
SAT-1 cable laying ship in 1969
1993 – SAT-2, first undersea Internet cable
SAT-1 was decommissioned in June 1993 and replaced with South Africa’s first undersea fibre-optic cable — SAT-2.
This cable also ran from Melbosstrand but made its landing in Europe at Funchal, Madeira.
SAT-2 was the first submarine cable to enable commercial and private Internet use in South Africa.
Laying of SAT-2
2001 — SAT-3/SAFE
Expanding South Africa’s Internet capacity near the turn of the century were the SAT-3 and SAFE cables, with respective initial design capacities of 340Gbps and 440Gbps.
SAT-3 linked South Africa to Portugal and Spain, while SAFE connected the country to Asia.
SAT-3/SAFE was constructed by a consortium of telecom operators, including Telkom.
2009 — Seacom
Seacom built the first submarine Internet cable system that connected South Africa with Europe via Africa’s east coast.
The 17,000km cable had a design capacity of 1.28Tbps at launch in July 2009.
2010 — Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy)
EASSy links South Africa with Sudan via multiple landing points in seven other African countries.
With a two fibre-pair configuration, it had a design capacity of 4.72Tbps one year after launch.
EASSy landing
2012 — West Africa Cable System (WACS)
The WACS cable system, which starts in Yzerfontein near Cape Town and terminates in the United Kingdom, was the first to use generalised multi-protocol label switching.
That enabled the cable to perform in-system wavelength restoration to increase network resilience.
WACS was built by a consortium of 12 partners, including Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, and Broadband Infraco.
Cabl- laying ship Île de Bréhat connecting WACS at Yzerfontein in South Africa, 24 April 2011, returning 28 April for inspection. Kalle Pihlajasaari, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2021 — Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) and Meltingpot Indianoceanic Submarine System (METISS)
Two more cables went live in 2021 — ACE and METISS.
ACE spans approximately 17,000km along Africa’s west coast and connects to 19 countries between South Africa and Europe.
ACE’s landing location in South Africa is at Duynefontein, north of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
Its investors include several African countries, as well as telecoms operators like Orange, Snatel, Zamani Telecom, and MTN’s Bayobab.
METISS is a shorter 3,200km cable system that connects Mauritius, Reunion Island, and Madagascar with South Africa.
It entered service just a few months before ACE and was built by a consortium consisting of Canal+ Télécom, CEB Fibernet, Emtel, Zeop, and SRR (SFR) Telma.
ACE submarine cable Duynefontein landing crew at work
2023 — Equiano
Google’s first submarine cable connecting Africa landed at Melkbosstrand in August 2022.
Seacom launched services on the cable in March 2023, while Liquid, Openserve, and WIOCC have also bought capacity on the cable.
Equiano boasts the most capacity of any undersea cable connected to South Africa, with 12 fibre pairs supporting 16Tbps each for a combined 196Tbps.
Equiano cable landing in South Africa
ETA 2024 — 2Africa
The world’s biggest undersea cable system — 2Africa — is set to go live in 2024.
Once completed, the Facebook-backed cable will measure 45,000km long and circumnavigate Africa with links to Europe and Asia. It will connect to 36 landing stations across 33 countries.
Three of these points are in South Africa — Coega in the Eastern Cape, Yzerfontein in the Western Cape, and Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal.
2Africa will add another 180Tbps of bandwidth capacity across its 16 fibre pairs.
2Africa cable landing in Yzerfontien in late 2022 source:All the big undersea cables that have connected South Africa to the world (mybroadband.co.za)
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