Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel)’s South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) submarine fibre optic cable has been lauded as critical infrastructure of strategic importance.

SAIL is an investment of Camtel, with its partner China Unicom. The cable was rolled out in 2018 and was designed to be a fast and direct path, utilising 100G transmission technology to deliver a design capacity of 32 Tbps, through a four-fibre pair configuration.

The SAIL landing station in Cameroon also connects to MainOne landing station in Lagos-Nigeria through the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS).

The telco is preparing to visit Brazil to market the country’s technical capacity and favourable conditions for investment in its telecommunications infrastructure.

Ambassador of Brazil to Cameroon Vivian Loss Sanmartin said the first and direct cable system, ,a 6000km cable which runs from Kribi in Cameroon to Fortaleza in Brazil, has a veritable potential to invigorate and deepen economic and commercial transactions between Cameroon and Brazil, as well as between the two continents.

During a recent visit to the Kribi Cable Landing Station, Sanmartin said, “With the SAIL cable, communication can be made in a direct manner without passing through Europe or the United States; we gain in speed and quality of transmission at a lower cost.”

Sanmartin added that with SAIL, Cameroon has an essential tool to eventually become a telecommunications hub between South America and Central Africa, and that the cable would definitely attract Brazilian telecommunications investors.

“This mission seems very necessary and very timely… This is a great initiative and we appreciate it in maintaining our relationship in general and technology in particular.”

Judith Yah Sunday, General Manager of Camtel, said the latest generation hi-tech infrastructure had revolutionised the digital ecosystem in Cameroon.