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| Cable type | Submarine communications cable |
|---|---|
| First traffic | December 15, 2012 |
| Design capacity | 20 Tbit/s |
| Area served | West African coast |
| Website | www.ace-submarinecable.com |
Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) is an optical-fiber submarine cable system serving 24 countries on the Europe , west coast and south Africa, managed by a consortium of 20 members.
The ACE cable connects more than 450 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 runs at around 6,000m below the sea level. The maximum capacity of the entire system is increased from 12.8 Tbps in the design to 20 Tbps.
It has been manufactured by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and laid by ships from ASN and Orange Marine.