[ 2011-04-11 ]

MTN’s investment in submarine cables reaches new frontiers as WACS prepares for
MTN Group’s $90 million investment in the West
Africa Cable System (WACS) will reach an important
milestone this month when the 14 kilometre-long
submarine cable lands at Yzerfontein in the
Western Cape.

MTN’s investment in WACS forms part of a myriad
of submarine cables that Africa’s leading
telecommunications provider has invested in in an
attempt to bring much-needed broadband capacity to
the continent, bolster Africa’s efforts to
achieve the United Nations Millennium Development
Goals to bridge the digital divide and provide
millions of its subscribers in its footprint in
Africa and the Middle East the capacity and
ability to use smart solutions.

As the single biggest investor in WACS, MTN will
receive an initial capacity of 11% when the cable
becomes commercially available in the second
quarter of this year.

Says Karel Pienaar, MTN South Africa Managing
Director: “WACS will provide millions of MTN
subscribers across Africa the much-needed
bandwidth and will go a long way towards
catapulting Africa into the digital age. Lack of
bandwidth on the continent has arrested the
development of Africa and has constrained the
continent from achieving its full potential.
MTN’s investment in WACS and a myriad of other
submarine cables bears testimony to the
company’s commitment towards the development of
the continent and reaffirms our long-held
confidence in the future of the continent.”

The WACS submarine cable is an ultra high capacity
fiber optic submarine cable system which links
Southern Africa and Europe, spanning the west
coast of Africa and terminating in London, United
Kingdom. This $650 million cable system is the
biggest to ever land on the Africa continent. It
has 15 terminal stations which anchor along the
western coast of Africa, including countries where
MTN has operations such as Republic of Congo,
Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Pienaar adds that as a multinational corporation
with a strong presence in 16 African countries,
MTN’s multi-million rand investments in undersea
cables is also underpinned by the critical role
that telephony has played in contributing
meaningfully to gross domestic product (GDP) and
alleviating poverty.

Quoting figures released by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), Pienaar says
mobile penetration in Africa is the lowest
worldwide at 41%, and that Africa still lags
behind when it comes to fixed (wired) broadband.

“Although subscriptions are increasing, a
penetration rate of less than 1% illustrates the
challenges that persist in increasing access to
high-speed, high capacity internet access in the
region. We believe that these investments MTN has
made in submarine cables will vault Africa into
the digital age and afford our subscribers in
sub-Saharan Africa and beyond the capacity and
ability to be part of this growing global
village,” says Pienaar.

In addition to the $90 million investment that MTN
ploughed in WACS, MTN has made a cash injection of
$50 million in Europe India Gateway (EIG) - the
submarine cable that connects Europe and India,
$40,3 million in the Eastern Africa Submarine
Cable System (EASSy) – an undersea fibre optic
cable system connecting countries of eastern
Africa to the rest of the world, and $10 million
in SAT-3/SAFE linking Portugal and Spain to South
Africa, with connections to several West African
countries along the route.

In EASSy, MTN has already been allocated an
initial capacity of 30GB in line with its
investment in the cable, while the company enjoys
317GG of capacity on the EIG cable.

WACS configuration
WACS – a minimum 4-fibre pair cable system
linking South Africa (SA) to Portugal, with
landings in several intermediate countries and an
extension Segment to the United Kingdom (UK) and
London Point of Presence

System Design – 5.12 Terabits per second
measured at 10Gbps wavelength technology

Initial Equipage – more than 500Gbps

Certain segments will deploy 40Gbps wavelengths
technology from first day of operation

Express fibre pair - interconnect SA, Portugal,
and UK through to London

Semi-express 1 fibre pair - interconnect SA,
Nigeria, and UK through to London

Semi-express 2 fibre pair - interconnect SA,
Angola, Democratic Repubblic of Congo, Ivory Coast
and UK through to London

Omnibus Fibre pair - interconnect SA, Namibia,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of
Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte
d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Canary Islands, Portugal,
UK through to London

The landing Parties are: Telkom(South Africa),
Telecom Namibia(Namibia), Angola cables(Angola),
OCPT(Democratic Republic of Congo), Congo
Telecom(Congo), MTN(Cameroon), MTN(Nigeria), Togo
Telecom (Togo), MTN(Ghana), MTN(Ivory Coast),
PTC(Cape Verde), Vodacom Group(Canary Islands),
Tata Communications(Portugal), Tata
Communications(UK), Cable and Wireless(London
PoP)

Segments are capable of carrying between 128 and
160 x 10Gbps wavelengths per fiber pair.
The WACS Consortium members are: MTN Group, Angola
Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, Congo
Telecom, Office Congolais des Postes et
Telecommunications (OCPT), PT COMUNICAÇÕES, Togo
Telecom, Tata Communications, Telecom Namibia,
Telkom SA Ltd and Vodacom Group Ltd.

About MTN Group
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational
telecommunications group, operating in 21
countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The
MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange
in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.”
As of 31 December 2010, MTN recorded 141, 6
million subscribers across its operations in
Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote
d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of
Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa,
Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.
Visit us at www.mtn.com

Source - www.mtnfootball.com

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