Impact of Rockfall in Congo Canyon on Submarine Cables
This past Sunday, a rock fall in the Congo Canyon, one of the world’s largest submarine canyons, led to significant disruptions in the WACS and South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) undersea cables.
Located on the South Atlantic continental shelf and slope of western equatorial Africa, the damage to the WACS cable is expected to have far-reaching effects, particularly in South Africa. The WACS cable connects the southern regions of Africa to Europe, running along the western coast of Africa and reaching the United Kingdom.
Details on the Cable Systems
This extensive 16,000-kilometer cable system consists of four fiber pairs and includes 15 terminal stations, managed by a consortium of 18 international telecom carriers. In contrast, the older SAT-3 cable has a capacity of 120 Gbps and became operational in 2001.
Repairing the cable is projected to take a month or longer. According to MyBroadband, a service vessel will be dispatched to the location. However, Telkom’s wholesale and networks division, Openserve, has indicated that the influence on services will be minimal.
Good News for Angola
On a more positive note, Angola recently welcomed the arrival of the 2Africa subsea cable in its capital, Luanda. This marks a pivotal milestone for the West African segment of the 2Africa cable, which originates from MTN’s Yzerfontein landing station in South Africa.
The 2Africa cable, which was announced in 2020 by a consortium including Meta, Telecom Egypt, China Mobile International, and others, is set to be a transformative project. With a total length of 45,000 kilometers and a data capacity of 180 Tbps, it will connect 33 countries through 46 landing points across Africa, Europe, and Asia upon its expected completion in 2024.