Angolan telecommunications operator Angola Cables has partnered with FiberLight LLC, which provides fibre-optic based networking services in the United States, to provide backhaul connectivity to US-based customers starting with the Miami, Florida region.

The partnership follows the completion of Angola Cables' Monet cable system, a subsea fibre optic telecommunications cable connecting the cities of Santos and Fortaleza in Brazil with Boca Raton in the US state of Florida.

FiberLight LLC claims to currently own more than 1,900,000 miles of dense fibre optic infrastructure over a growing footprint of US metropolitan areas.

According to a joint statement, the 10,556-km Monet cable is capable of delivering a minimum of 64 Tbps of capacity, providing a low-latency route to users in the US and Latin America.

Fabio Jose, Product Manager at Angola Cables says connectivity services via the Monet cable link-up were rolled out in December 2017.

António Nunes, CEO of Angola Cables says the appointment of FiberLight offers extended advantages to local and international connectivity operators. "The link-up with FiberLight will allow Angola Cables to deliver reliable, high graded services beyond the Monet cable termination point of MI3 Equinix and the data center in Boca Raton at Equinix's MI1 colocation facility in Miami, Florida."

Equinix's MI1, also known as the NAP of the Americas (NOTA), is the key gateway for internet traffic between the US and Brazil.

SACS completed

Angola Cables also confirmed that it has completed its South Atlantic Cable System's (SACS) deep-water installation, connecting Africa to South America, (Angola and Brazil).

Jose says following completion of the coastal installation work at Fortaleza, Brazil, a period of testing will begin and the company expects to have the cable fully operational by Q3 of 2018.

The first-of-its-kind system aims to connect Angola and Brazil across 6500 kilometres in the South Atlantic with 40 Tbps (100Gb/s x 100 wavelengths x 4 fibre-pairs) of capacity.

According to the company, SACS presents an opportunity for Angola to become one of the telecommunications hubs in sub-Saharan Africa.

In an interview with ITWeb Africa in November, Nunes said: "With SACS in place, wholesale customers between the continents will see a fivefold improvement in latency, as well as better access to America, one of the largest producers and aggregators of digital content and services."

"Investments in underwater cable systems and data centres are creating digital bridges bringing continents closer, but also improving access to major international telecommunications circuits."

He added that the system presents a massive opportunity for sub-Saharan Africa to leapfrog other countries.