The undersea fibre optic cable between Angola and Brazil will be operational between late 2015 and early 2016, said the chief executive of Angola Cables.

António Nunes said the undersea cable, which has an estimated cost of US$160 million, is the first transatlantic fibre optic system in the Southern Hemisphere, connecting Africa to South America, according to state newspaper Jornal de Angola

The CEO of Angola Cables recalled that Africa currently has the highest growth rate of Internet users in the world and pointed out that this project positions Angola as a strategic point for the telecommunications sector on the continent.

For Brazil, according to Nunes, the main advantages are the link to Asia, eliminating the passage through North America and Europe, and direct links to one of the “hubs” of Africa that facilitates access to the region and also an alternative link to Europe.

“The idea of this project has to do with growing demand for telecommunications, both in Africa and in Brazil, with the strategic intent of Angola to become a regional telecommunications hub, coupled with the strong relationship between the governments of Brazil and Angola,” noted Nunes.

The 6,000-kilometre cable consists of four pairs of fibre optic cables for a capacity of about 40 Tbps (terabits per second), with bandwidths of 100×100 Gbps (gigabits per second) in each pair, and will connect Luanda to Fortaleza (Ceará state).