MTN Ghana to unveil WACs cable Friday

An underwater submarine cable part of the West Africa Cable System is to be unveiled officially by MTN Group on Friday. The $90 million investment runs 14,500 kilometers and docks at Ghana’s South La in Accra.

Analysts, telecom operators and governments in the region are hopeful that the new cable will spur Internet and broadband capabilities as well as push information technology to new heights.

“It is really an important endeavor for telecom in Africa to have a cable of this magnitude. Now the companies have to take advantage of this for the future,” said an analyst.

The actual landing of the cable will depend on weather and tide conditions, but there is hope that it will be officially launched on Friday.

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.

The $650 million cable system is the largest design capacity submarine cable system to ever land on the Africa continent. It has 15 terminal stations that anchor along the western coast of Africa, including countries where MTN has operations such as Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo, Namibia and South Africa.

MTN Ghana’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Ikpoki said in a press release that the landing of WACS in Ghana was “a crucial milestone for the industry and country, since it will serve as a key enabler to critical telecommunications development in Ghana.”

Ikpoki added: “WACS, with its 5.2 terabit design capacity, is expected to increase overall capacity for transmission of telecommunications data (bandwidth) in Ghana. This single cable will catapult the country deep into the digital age.”

Staff Writer