Latest news with #WACS
Arabian Post
24-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Lagos Data Hub Taps Angola Cables for Continental Leap
LAGOS — Rack Centre's Lagos campus has entered a strategic collocation deal with TelCables Nigeria, a subsidiary of Angola Cables, marking a significant enhancement of West Africa's digital infrastructure. The agreement brings high-capacity network infrastructure and four major subsea cable systems—SACS, MONET, SEBRAS and EllaLink—directly into Rack Centre's campus, securing faster, lower-latency routes to Europe, the Americas and Latin America. Fernando Fernandes, chief executive of TelCables Nigeria and West Africa, highlighted the strategic value of the SACS route to Latin America: 'Businesses in latency‑sensitive sectors—financial services, content delivery and real‑time communications—will experience faster transactions, reduced lag and an enhanced user experience.' He also emphasised that hosting within Rack Centre enables localisation of the Clouds2Africa platform, pricing in naira and shielding customers from foreign currency exposure. The infrastructure rollout includes lighting redundant dark‑fibre rings into Rack Centre's network, ensuring high availability and resilience. Local end‑points for IaaS, PaaS and CDN services enable customers to consume scalable cloud resources domestically, while direct entrances to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud support hybrid and multi‑cloud strategies alongside dedicated internet access, IP Transit and IX peering. ADVERTISEMENT Since its establishment in 2012, Rack Centre has grown to host over 70 carriers, ISPs and Tier 1 networks. Its new LGS2 facility offers 13.5 MW of IT load, 7,200 m² of white space, four meet‑me rooms and a design PUE of 1.35, powered in part by sustainable energy sources. The facility's N+2 cooling, AI‑ready high‑density racks and building management system underscore its focus on efficiency and innovation. Lars Johannisson, chief executive of Rack Centre, described the alliance with Angola Cables as pivotal. 'We can now offer 99.95 % SLA routes to more destinations, enabling enterprises, governments and cloud providers to meet performance and data‑residency requirements while keeping traffic local,' he said. Angola Cables operates a global backbone spanning 33,000 km of subsea cables—including WACS, SACS and MONET—and extends another 50,000 km through partner systems, linking Africa with the Americas, Europe and Asia. It maintains over 30 points of presence and connectivity to more than 66 data centres worldwide, with capacity in excess of 18,500 Tbps. The inclusion of SACS into Rack Centre's ecosystem is particularly significant. As Africa's first direct low‑latency submarine cable linking Angola and Brazil, the 6,165‑km SACS system became operational in 2018 and is designed with 40 Tb/s capacity. It bypasses traditional Europe‑and‑US routing, reducing latency and costs by declining dependence on indirect paths. The WACS cable system also plays a role, linking Nigeria and Angola to Europe with 14.5 Tbit/s design capacity and more than 500 Gbit/s active capacity to date. MONET, a 10,556‑km subsea link between Brazil and the US, offers 64 Tb/s and connects to Rack Centre via SACS integration. EllaLink extends connectivity between Europe and Latin America via Portugal to Brazil, further diversifying routing options. Industry observers note that West Africa has faced connectivity challenges such as cable cuts and over‑reliance on single routes. Estimates suggest that up to 80 percent of subsea disruption incidents are attributed to accidental damage along the West African corridor. By integrating multiple, redundant systems—including the only direct Africa–Latin America route—the partnership reduces vulnerability. In addition to resilience and performance gains, the initiative supports strategic trends in regional cloud adoption. Enterprises and hyperscalers in Lagos and across West Africa increasingly demand local cloud access, multi‑cloud flexibility and sovereign data environments—requirements that cannot be fully met through satellite or offshore data routing. The on‑campus Clouds2Africa presence eliminates cross‑border ingress/egress fees and foreign exchange volatility for customers paying in naira. As global data flows and artificial intelligence workloads rise, latency optimisation and localised cloud access become vital. Rack Centre's LGS2 architecture aligns with this demand, having been certified as the first EDGE‑certified data centre in EMEA by the International Finance Corporation in 2022. With this enhanced infrastructure, Lagos solidifies its role as a key digital hub—offering enterprises, governments and cloud service providers a robust foundation for secure, resilient, sovereign operations.
The South African
05-06-2025
- The South African
Here's why your INTERNET may be slow this week
Parts of South Africa are grappling with slower internet speeds this week as a major international undersea data cable – the West Africa Cable System (WACS) – undergoes emergency repairs off the coast of Namibia. The 14 500km fibre-optic link, which connects South Africa to Europe via Portugal, went offline on Sunday, 1 June, after a critical fault was detected in a branching unit near Swakopmund. The damaged component – a branching unit which reroutes data signals – has been retrieved by a deep-sea cable repair ship. Engineers are now working to install a replacement and conduct tests to restore connectivity between Yzerfontein and Lisbon, a crucial handover hub for European internet traffic. 'We've verified the rest of the cable is intact. The next step is to install the new unit and perform a full signal test,' said Robert Kraai, co-chair of the WACS operations committee. Western Cape users are feeling the brunt of the outage, with reports of sluggish browsing and interrupted video streaming. users are of the outage, with reports of sluggish browsing and interrupted video streaming. Gauteng and northern regions, however, are largely unaffected due to their reliance on East Coast alternatives like Seacom and EASSy. 'Many networks in the Western Cape lean heavily on WACS,' said local ISP Cool Ideas. 'That makes this kind of outage particularly disruptive in the region.' Repairs are expected to continue until at least 16 June, but experts stress that sea conditions could impact the timeline. 'If the ocean cooperates, we should see service restored by the third week of June,' telecom analyst Roderick Beck noted. 'But it's the sea – anything can happen.' WACS is vital not just for basic internet access, but for high-speed data services, global content delivery, and cloud connectivity in South Africa. It also connects to the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) via Angola, making it a linchpin for regional and intercontinental traffic. The incident underscores how fragile global connectivity can be – relying on a small number of deep-sea cables, often vulnerable to faults, weather events, or physical damage. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
Zawya
30-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Telcables Nigeria to Host Connect Xperience Event to Discuss the Future Adopation of Local Cloud Services
TelCables Nigeria, a subsidiary of Angola Cables ( is proud to announce that it will be hosting the Connect Xperience event. This initiative will bring companies and strategic partners together to evaluate how local cloud infrastructure and services can assist in accelerating digital transformation and bring far reaching benefits to multiple sectors across the Nigerian economy. At present, Nigeria's cloud computing market is valued at around $1.03 billion and is expected to grow to $3.28 billion by 2030. With the exponential growth in the digitalization of the financial, technological and commercial sectors, dependence on cloud services is becoming increasingly critical. The event will highlight the advantages of adopting a local cloud solution, that offers lower latency, greater data sovereignty, enhanced security and improved compliance with local regulations. The IT sector currently contributes approximately 20% to Nigeria's real GDP, underscoring the pivotal role that the sector plays in the nation's economy. Fernando Fernandes, CEO of TelCables Nigeria said, 'we believe that the future of the cloud in Africa lies in innovative and adaptable solutions that have been developed in Africa, for Africa - and the unique requirements and demands of businesses and users across the continent. With strategic data centers and world-class connectivity, we are ready to support sustainable digital growth in Nigeria.' During the Connect Xperience, TelCables experts will present cloud models tailored to the needs of Nigeria companies, from startups to large corporations, as well as opportunities for local resellers and integrators looking to expand their services based on a robust, affordable and available infrastructure in Lagos. 'Connect Xperience promises to be a meeting point for IT decision-makers, business leaders and industry professionals interested in exploring reliable, scalable and local cloud solutions that can improve business processes and boost the local Nigerian economy,' concluded Fernandes. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Angola Cables. About Angola Cables: Angola Cables is an internationally established ICT and digital solutions and network services provider. The company specializes in connectivity solutions for the wholesale market and offers tailored digital services and solutions across multiple industries, including Cloud resources for the corporate enterprise sector. Known for its innovation, Angola Cables operates a robust global backbone network, providing access to major IXPs, Tier I operators, and global content providers. With more than 30 PoPs and connections to plus 930 interconnected Data Centres and 6000 peering agreements, traffic over its international network is more than 18 500 Tbps. The company has its own submarine cable network spanning over 33,000 kilometres (WACS, SACS, and MONET) and extends its services to over 50,000 kilometres through partner cables, connecting the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, the company operates two world-class Data Centres, AngoNAP Fortaleza in Brazil and AngoNAP Luanda in Angola. Angola Cables also manages PIX in Brazil and AngonIX in Angola - one of the leading internet traffic exchange points in Africa that directly connects to over 21 IXPs worldwide. With a significant international presence, Angola Cables is expanding its operations into strategic markets such as Brazil, South Africa, the United States and Nigeria. The company promotes intercontinental interconnection, driving digital and economic development, and ranks among the top 25 internet service providers in the world today. *The Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) 2023 For more information, visit the website: About TelCables West Africa: TelCables West Africa is powered by the Angola Cables network, a multinational telecommunications company operating in the wholesale market. The company operates connectivity, IT solutions and services as well as international data circuit capacity and IP Transit via submarine cables. As the most connected network operator in Africa, we provide secure, low-latency direct routes from West Africa to the USA and South America and from West Africa to London. With our presence across a number of Nigerian IP hubs from Lekki, WACS CLS, Medallion DC, Rack Centre and others, and connections across Africa via the Djoliba network, we can connect your business to the world. For more information, visit the website:
