Africa Coast to Europe (cable system)


Africa Coast to Europe is an optical-fiber submarine cable system serving 24 countries on the west coast of Africa and Europe, managed by a consortium of 19 members.
The ACE cable connects more than 400 million people, either directly for coastal countries or through land links for landlocked countries such as Mali and Niger. ACE is also the first international submarine cable to land in Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe and Sierra Leone.
Agreements are being put in place to allow the arrival of other operators in countries along the ACE cable route. Guinea-Bissau is the next country to be connected to the submarine cable.
ACE Consortium consists of telecommunications operators and member countries that have invested in the total 700 million dollars project, sometimes with the financial support of the World Bank. The consortium agreement was signed on 5 June 2010 and on 15 December 2012, this 17,000 km-long cable was put into service for the first time. The official inauguration ceremony was held in Banjul, Gambia, on 19 December 2012.
The 4 to 5 cms diameter cable has a potential capacity of 12.8 Tbps and runs at around 6,000m below the sea level.
It has been manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks and laid by ships from ASN and Orange Marine.

ACE consortium

The cable cost consortium members $700 million :
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Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
Segment 4
This 17 000-kilometers long cable is the only one connecting 24 west African and European countries. The ACE consortium members are organized according to a global access concept: multiple investors in one landing station. ACE marine routes have a low history of fault and a time-proof technology. The cable is able to adopt newer transponder technology.
Technical features are as below :
Online searches do not return significant outages caused by damage to the cable since 2012, .