Submarine cables have helped connect South Africa to the rest of the world for nearly 145 years.
Several recent undersea cable breaks have made South Africans more aware of the vast networks that link the country to the global Internet. However, many might not know that undersea telecommunications cables have been connecting South Africa to the rest of the world for nearly 145 years.
Wireless communication has improved drastically and is certainly possible over long distances. However, wired connectivity provides greater capacity, speed, and lower latency. While underground or overground cables are widely used to connect countries on the same continent, inter-continental communication inevitably requires crossing water at some point. Running the cables along the ocean floor by simply dropping them off ships travelling between two destinations turned out to work perfectly fine. The first deployment of undersea cables for long-distance communication was an insulated electric telegraph cable laid between England and France in 1850. The first intercontinental connection linking Europe and the United States of America followed, with a cable between Ireland and Newfoundland going live in 1858. By 1871, all the world’s populated continents were connected via a combination of terrestrial and submarine cables. Following telegraph cables were telephone cables and, eventually, data communication cables that supported the Internet. Fast-forward to 2024 and the world’s undersea cables are estimated to span a collective 1.5 million kilometres. Ten undersea cables currently connect South Africa to the rest of the world, providing access to a wealth of content and services hosted on international servers. Below are the key moments in South Africa’s history of undersea cable connections, starting with those that supported telegraphy and telephony and moving on to Internet connections.The first-ever submarine cable connecting South Africa to the rest of the world was a single-channel electrical cable rolled out by the South African Telegraph Company. Completed in December 1979, the cable ran along the east coast of Africa from Durban and Zanzibar to Aden in Yemen, before extending into terrestrial telegraph networks in Europe.Ten years later, another telegraph cable was run along Africa’s west coast, connecting Cape Town to Europe via St Helena and the Ascension Islands.The first undersea cable that could carry telephonic communication between South Africa and the rest of the world was SAT-1, laid in 1968. Manufactured by Standard Telephone and Cables, it ran from Melkbosssstrand, about 30km north of Cape Town on South Africa’s western coast, to Sesimbra in Portugal. SAT-1 was decommissioned in June 1993 and replaced with South Africa’s first undersea fibre-optic cable — SAT-2.2001 — SAT-3/SAFE Expanding South Africa’s Internet capacity near the turn of the century were the SAT-3 and SAFE cables, with respective initial design capacities of 340Gbps and 440Gbps.2009 — Seacom Seacom built the first submarine Internet cable system that connected South Africa with Europe via Africa’s east coast.EASSy links South Africa with Sudan via multiple landing points in seven other African countries.The WACS cable system, which starts in Yzerfontein near Cape Town and terminates in the United Kingdom, was the first to use generalised multi-protocol label switching.WACS was built by a consortium of 12 partners, including Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, and Broadband Infraco. Cabl- laying ship Île de Bréhat connecting WACS at Yzerfontein in South Africa, 24 April 2011, returning 28 April for inspection. Kalle Pihlajasaari,Two more cables went live in 2021 — ACE and METISS. ACE spans approximately 17,000km along Africa’s west coast and connects to 19 countries between South Africa and Europe. ACE’s landing location in South Africa is at Duynefontein, north of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Its investors include several African countries, as well as telecoms operators like Orange, Snatel, Zamani Telecom, and MTN’s Bayobab. METISS is a shorter 3,200km cable system that connects Mauritius, Reunion Island, and Madagascar with South Africa. It entered service just a few months before ACE and was built by a consortium consisting of Canal+ Télécom, CEB Fibernet, Emtel, Zeop, and SRR Telma.Google’s first submarine cable connecting Africa landed at Melkbosstrand in August 2022. Seacom launched services on the cable in March 2023, while Liquid, Openserve, and WIOCC have also bought capacity on the cable. Equiano boasts the most capacity of any undersea cable connected to South Africa, with 12 fibre pairs supporting 16Tbps each for a combined 196Tbps.Once completed, the Facebook-backed cable will measure 45,000km long and circumnavigate Africa with links to Europe and Asia. It will connect to 36 landing stations across 33 countries. Three of these points are in South Africa — Coega in the Eastern Cape, Yzerfontein in the Western Cape, and Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal.new article comments policy which aims to encourage constructive discussions. To get your comments published, make sure it is civil and adds value to the discussion.
Equiano Headline SAT-1 SAT-2 Sat-3/Safe SAT-3/WASC SEACOM South African Telegraph Company Submarine Cables Telegraph Telegraphy Telephones Telephony Undersea Cables West Africa Cable System (WACS) Telecoms
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