When it comes to Africa’s place on the global telecoms stage, ‘bridging the digital divide’ is a catchphrase that has been used for decades to describe how the continent has lagged in global connectivity.
While a significant disparity remains, the gap is closing and it could be the ideal time to seize the opportunity to take this much further. Subsea cables like 2Africa have been landing in the region, while hyperscalers are seeking to establish more of a foothold there and alternative southern routes across the globe.
Ângelo Gama, CEO of Angola Cables, believes the development of new routes across the Atlantic will remain essential not just for boosting Africa’s own standing and as a redundancy option for carriers, but also in offering route diversity.
“The evolution of subsea cable routes in the Atlantic to support the AI-driven data wave will be one of the most significant infrastructure stories of the next decade,” he says. “It’s not just about laying more cables; it’s about a fundamental shift in where they go, how they’re built and who builds them.”
Reaching new shores
In terms of connecting up Africa itself and linking it with the rest of the world, Angola Cables has played a foundational role since it came into being in 2009.
“Rather than just being a domestic telecoms operator, the company has successfully positioned itself as a critical wholesale infrastructure player on the global stage,” says Gama. “We have redrawn the internet traffic map of the South Atlantic and opened up new arteries for economic development on either side of the Atlantic.”
A milestone came in September 2018, when the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), owned and operated by Angola Cables, went into service. Linking Angola’s capital, Luanda, with Fortaleza in Brazil, it was the first high-speed, ultra-low-latency cable linking Africa to South America.
SACS also provided an onward connection to Miami, Florida, via the MONET cable between Brazil and the US, on which Angola Cables also partners. Crucially, the cable meant that traffic between Africa and South America no longer had to travel via Europe and the US.
“This single cable slashed latency between Angola and Brazil to just 63 milliseconds and drastically reduced wholesale IP transit costs,” says Gama. Furthermore, he says, over 70% of direct traffic between Africa and the US runs via the Angola Cables network today, while the company has become Africa’s most interconnected network operator.
Building a dream
Gama has overseen considerable further development since he joined Angola Cables as CTO the year after SACS went live, assuming the CEO role less than a year later. This includes the company upgrading its network in the South Atlantic through partnerships on the EllaLink and Equiano subsea cables, while establishing Angola as a key ICT hub.
Today, the company has 33,000km of submarine cables via the SACS, MONET and WACS systems, and 50,000km more through partner networks including EllaLink, Equiano and 2Africa. Through all these activities, Angola Cables has also achieved its dream of establishing an ‘Atlantic Ring’ comprising a massive interconnected subsea network.
Furthermore, Gama highlights the key role of new systems as alternative routes in the event of disruptions in West Africa or the Red Sea, important in light of the significant cable cuts in those parts of the world in the past few years. “Safeguarding and improving the protection of these valuable arteries is paramount,” he says.
Meanwhile, the company has transformed from a wholesale bandwidth provider into a comprehensive digital entity, offering localised cloud services, bespoke cybersecurity, direct peering and content delivery networks.
Wider picture
Gama believes that much of the success of Angola Cables lies in looking at the wider context of Africa’s whole ecosystem of players, believing that the quickest way to broaden connectivity is through collaborative partnerships that promote carrier- and data-centre-neutral connections between countries and continents.
The company is extending this ethos to terrestrial networks as it seeks to funnel regional traffic to the rest of the continent through its hub in Angola.
“We bring in business to Africa regardless of who is going to take that piece of the cake,” says Gama. “It’s about bringing the knowledge we’ve gained over the years from submarine consortiums. Adopting this approach, we hope we can continue making a massive contribution towards bridging the digital divide.”
Related stories
New Atlantic ‘super corridor’ to boost digital links between Europe, Americas and Africa
Megaport partners with Angola Cables and Telcables Brasil to boost global connectivity
