SAIL submarine cable installation completed

The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) consortium, which consists of China Unicom (with its wholly owned subsidiary, China Unicom do Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda) and CAMTEL (Cameroon Telecommunications), say that work on its submarine cable system completed September 4. Huawei Marine Networks deployed the approximately 6,000-km undersea cable, which links Africa and Brazil.
Sept. 10, 2018
2 min read

The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) consortium, which consists of China Unicom (with its wholly owned subsidiary, China Unicom do Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda) and CAMTEL (Cameroon Telecommunications), say that work on its submarine cable system completed September 4. Huawei Marine Networks deployed the approximately 6,000-km undersea cable, which links Africa and Brazil.

The four-fiber submarine cable network lands in Kribi in Cameroon and Fortaleza in Brazil. It has a design capacity of 32 Tbps based on 100-Gbps wavelengths.

SAIL aims to meet the traffic demands from emerging markets on both ends and offer new routing through diverse paths between Africa and North America, Europe, and South America. This connectivity includes immediate links of the BRICS countries Brazil and South Africa, and China, Russia and India.

Huawei Marine announced in June 2017 that it had signed the SAIL installation contract with China Unicom and Camtel (see "Huawei Marine to build South Atlantic Inter Link undersea cable system"). “China has strategic partnerships with Africa and South America. SAIL not only provides high-quality international telecommunication services to countries in these two continent, but also better serves Chinese companies to develop their business in these region,” Lu Yimin, CEO of China Unicom, said at the time.

Camtel General Manager David Nkote added, “It is a great pleasure to partner with China Unicom and Huawei Marine on building the SAIL cable system. When it is completed, it will provide new international connectivity, to facilitate bandwidth demand between Africa and South America and support the booming economies in the two continents.”

For related articles, visit the Network Design Topic Center.

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.

About the Author

Stephen Hardy

Editorial Director and Associate Publisher

Stephen Hardy has covered fiber optics for more than 15 years, and communications and technology for more than 30 years. He is responsible for establishing and executing Lightwave's editorial strategy across its digital magazine, website, newsletters, research and other information products. He has won multiple awards for his writing.

Contact Stephen to discuss:

  • Contributing editorial material to the Web site or digital magazine
  • The direction of a digital magazine issue, staff-written article, or event
  • Lightwave editorial attendance at industry events
  • Arranging a visit to Lightwave's offices
  • Coverage of announcements
  • General questions of an editorial nature
Sign up for Lightwave Newsletters
Get the latest news and updates.