Telecommunications company Angola Cables has begun construction of a South American data centre located in Fortaleza, Brazil, as the next step in a wider plan to increase digital inclusion in Africa.

ITWeb Africa reported in April a marine survey had been completed allowing work to begin on the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) developed by Angola Cables, to connect the west coast of Africa with the Americas.

The 6,165km-long SACS, which is expected to be completed in 2018, will interconnect with the Monet cable system - connecting the United States and Brazil - and WACS, the West Africa Cable System.

The company said the Brazil-based data centre is an important next step in this process, as it will provide high speed internet at some of the lowest latency speeds between the two continents.

Two key routes will run from the data centre. The SACS system will connect the Fortaleza centre to Luanda, while the Monet Cable will connect Miami with both Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, and is due to be completed by the end of 2017. The data centre also aims to accommodate further cables.

"The systems will enhance Africa's global communications networks, provide a 'meet me' point with high connectivity and access to larger markets. They will also deliver the lowest latency routing between Africa and South America," said António Nunes, Chief Executive Officer of Anglo Cables.

Angola Cables' product manager Fabio José said the centre will be a Tier 3 data centre from a design and construction perspective, which will account for the different layers of security, humidity and environment controls.

"We are creating a digital gateway between the closest point to Africa in South America," he said.