Angola Cables announced an agreement with the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), the regional research and education network (REN) that facilitates interconnections between national RENs in West and Central Africa.

According to a media statement, the agreement will support the growing connectivity among academic communities across West and Central Africa, including services that foster collaboration between research and education institutions within and beyond the region.

Antonio Nunes, CEO of Angola Cables said: "WACREN is an important player in Africa's growing connectivity requirements, and Angola Cables recognises the need for African scientists, researchers and other academics to have bandwidth comparable to their international colleagues."

Angola Cables is part of the consortium of companies that manage the West Africa Cable System (WACS), which provides carrier-level services to operators in Angola and in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa. The company is also building the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) between Angola and Brazil that is expected to be completed in mid-2018, which will connect to the Monet submarine cable system - linking Santos and Fortaleza in Brazil, and Boca Raton, Florida, in the USA - a project which is currently being completed.

"As we grow our alliance, Angola Cables will certainly play an important role in enabling us to boost the connectivity in our region and beyond, and allow our members to collaborate more efficiently among themselves and with colleagues in other parts of the world," said Boubakar Barry, CEO of WACREN.

As part of its work in the region, WACREN was involved in the TransAfrican Network Development (TANDEM) a project that aims to expand integration into the global REN community, as well as Sci-GaIA (Energising Scientific Endeavour through Science Gateways and e-Infrastructures in Africa), an Africa-wide project that produces educational and training resources in various fields of science, and MAGIC (Middleware for collaborative Applications and Global virtual Communities), all funded by the European Union. WACREN is also implementing the AfricaConnect2 project, in collaboration with its European counterpart GEANT.