38 | opinion

Race to connect Africa to South America starts up

CamTel is backing a new project to lay a submarine cable OPINION directly to , one of a number of moves to position Julian Rawle, Cameroon as a new hub in western Africa. principal, Julian Rawle Consulting

n October, Cameroon incumbent but possibly includes terrestrial network also a lot of Brazilians in the US creating ICamTel announced its intention to build as well. Huawei Marine has been and hosting content for their motherland build a fibre-optic cable between Kribi, awarded the supply contract. which will outweigh the furore created by Cameroon, and Fortaleza, Brazil. CamTel Th ere is a strong political overtone to revelations of US spying on President CEO David Nkoto Emane, said: SACS and CBCS. Cables is Dilma Rousseff . “Negotiations are advanced enough for pursuing a vision of Angola as one of As for providing more competitive Cameroon to be the first African country Africa’s telecoms hubs, with the backing of connectivity for African users to have a submarine cable connection to an oil-rich government. SAT-3 and WACS downloading from North America, the the South American continent.” already land in Angola and the ACE introduction of the WACS and ACE Clearly this was a dig at the other extension is planned to have a branch into systems has had a signifi cant impact on African countries that have been working the country. pricing of Africa- bandwidth and, for years on creating this new route and Cameroon has also commissioned a these days, you can get a personal home signifi es that there is now a race on to cable to Nigeria. From nowhere, it is equity loan to pay for a 10G wave across connect the two continents and their becoming a hub for submarine cables to the North Atlantic, so it seems unlikely emerging economies. western Africa. Th is unlikely development that an Africa-Brazil-US link would have a Th e South Atlantic Express (SAEx) is driven by Chinese investment in cost advantage. Th e level of redundancy project was announced in 2011, to Cameroonian infrastructure in return for would also be inferior. connect to Fortaleza. A raw materials. It is also a refl ection of the Establishing an entirely new route for second phase would connect South Africa Chinese government’s initiative to provide submarine fi bre-optic connectivity is never to . Th e project has been through alternative westbound routes to the Gulf, easy. First and foremost, there must be a many iterations but has so far been unable Africa and South America. viable business case, even if governments to convince investors that there is Ultra-long-haul cables do not usually are involved. Persuading investors and suffi cient demand to provide a return. get built purely for political reasons and funding institutions that the return Around the same time, a group of the commercial case for a cable simply outweighs the risk is a major challenge Angola telcos formed Angola Cables and connecting sub-Saharan Africa to South which has proven too much for a number announced their intention to build the America is not strong. South American of projects around the world that have South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) users are generally downloading content sought to plough new furrows. between Luanda, Angola and Fortaleza. from North America. Something can be Th ere is a common misconception that In October 2014, the Angolan made of the Portuguese connection Chinese money is easy to access for those government approved a $260 million bank between Angola and Brazil but there are who are backed by the Chinese guarantee for the project, government or that the oil which enabled the signing of a and gas industry is a source supply contract with NEC. of easy money. According to Angola Cables, Th ere are a number of the contract with NEC will go instances in the recent history into force in the fi rst quarter SACS of the submarine cable Fortaleza of 2016. Fernando industry that prove this to be Brazil de Noronha Th e Cameroon-Brazil Cable Cacuaco incorrect. Chinese bankers are System (CBCS) project uses a SAEx Angola just as concerned about St Helena relatively short route and making a return as anyone else already has Telefonica as a Walvis Bay and the oil companies see solid landing party in Brazil. South telecoms as a peripheral Africa Mtuzini Moreover, it has the backing of Yzerfontein activity of little consequence. Chinese money. TMT Finance Th e mesh of the global has quoted the project cost at Cape Town submarine cable network has a $463 million. Th is is high yawning gap in the South compared with recent Pacifi c Atlantic. Th e question is cable projects of a similar SACS and SAEx look set to connect Brazil to Africa whether political will alone is length and sea-bed topology suffi cient to fi ll it.

december/january 2016