SEACOM, a leading African telecommunications and managed services provider, has launched the Equiano subsea cable, which offers fast connectivity from Cape Town, South Africa to Lisbon, Portugal. The cable has been equipped by SEACOM’s technology partner, Infinera and offers Private Line services with latency speeds of +/-110ms between South Africa and Europe, making it the fastest direct route between the continents.
SEACOM’s subsea cable ecosystem surrounding Africa is supported by a continent-wide IP-MPLS network. The Equiano subsea cable is one of the highest-capacity cables serving Africa, stretching 15,000 kilometres from Portugal to South Africa, with a design capacity of 144 Tbps. It boasts twelve fibre pairs and landing stations in Rupert’s Bay, St. Helena; Lomé, Togo; Lagos, Nigeria; Swakopmund, Namibia and Melkbosstrand, Cape Town.
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SEACOM has positioned itself as the go-to Pan-African telecommunications provider with direct access to the European market, offering an express route from Cape Town to Lisbon. The Equiano subsea cable serves as an alternative route to and from the continent and will increase South Africa’s GDP by $5.8 billion and create 180,000 indirect jobs by 2025.
The launch comes after SEACOM has completed extensive work to support the new connection, including upgrades to its transmission and IP network both locally and internationally. As part of the service available to wholesale and enterprise clients from March, SEACOM will offer an express route from Cape Town to Lisbon. Clients will enjoy high-speed connectivity without having their data rerouted to other countries during transmission.