WACS gets Portugal-UK extension

Alcatel-Lucent will link the West Africa Cable System (WACS) to the United Kingdom with an extension based on Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) technology to meet broadband transmission services demand, according to a release by the vendor.

The development follows Alca-Lu’s field trial of a 40Gbps solution to boost connectivity along the Africa-Europe route with a combined result of raising the submarine cable’s overall design capacity from 3.8Tbps to 5.12Tbps.

The 40G-based link will span 2,000km between the United Kingdom and Portugal, joining an undersea system connecting South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands.

According to TeleGeography CommsUpdate the WACS consortium comprises a dozen entities: Angola Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, Congo Telecom, MTN, Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications, Portugal Telecom / Cabo Verde Telecom, Tata Communications / Neotel, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.

Alca-Lu signed a USD600 million contract to build the subsea network in April 2009.