Cabo Verde, Morocco and South Africa should soon be connected to a new fibre optic cable. Indeed, the Spanish firm Hemisphere Cable Company, S.L. (HCC) is planning to deploy a new broadband telecom infrastructure that will directly connect Europe and Latin America. Baptised WASACE 1, the cable will link Fortaleza in Brazil, Canary Islands and Seixal in Spain with additional subsidiaries in Cabo Verde, Madera (Portugal) and Casablanca (Morocco). 

The new infrastructure includes a network operation centre as well as a new data centre in Canary Island. Future itineraries are planned for West Africa, the Mediterranean and North America. NEC Corporation was entrusted the construction and deployment of this new system as well as the realisation of the future itineraries.

The submarine system will provide eight pairs of optical fibre for a total capacity of 144 Tbps, each pair having an initial capacity extensible by 18 Tbps. The project should be completed within thirty months and the system made available in Q2, 2021.  

A second submarine cable, WASACE 2, will also be deployed by HCC. It should link the Canary Islands to South Africa. Its deployment should start before mid-2019 and be completed during the second half of 2021.