Fate in service Design capacity 5.12 Tbit/s | First traffic December 15, 2012 Area served West African coast | |
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Cable type Submarine communications cable Website www.ace-submarinecable.com | ||
The ACE (African Coast to Europe) submarine communications cable is a cable system along the west coast of Africa between France and South Africa managed by a consortium of 19 operators & administrations headed by Orange. The consortium agreement was signed on June 5, 2010. The cable was manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and was laid by ships from ASN and France Telecom Marine.
Contents
The first phase of the 17,000 km-long fiber optic cable was put in service on December 15, 2012, with an official inauguration ceremony held on December 19, 2012 in Banjul, The Gambia.
The ACE Cable will eventually connect 23 countries, either directly for coastal countries or through land links for landlocked countries, like Mali and Niger.
ACE is the first international submarine cable to land in Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe and Sierra Leone.
ACE consortium
The current members of the consortium are:
Agreements are in place for the later entry of other operators or administrations along the cable route.
Topology
The ACE system uses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, which is currently the most advanced for submarine cables. With WDM, cable capacity can be increased without additional submarine work. With an overall potential capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s, the system will support the 40 Gbit/s technology from its launch.
Landing points
The cable landing points are planned to be in the following countries and territories:
Besides the above landing points, connectivity is extended to landlocked countries Mali and Niger via land links.