Telkom says it has contributed to the fourth upgrade of the South Atlantic-3 (SAT-3), West Africa Submarine Cable (WASC), and South Africa - Far East (SAFE) undersea cable systems, saying the investment will help meet growing data demands.
Alphonzo Samuels, the telco's CTO, says the move aims to enhance customer experience. "This cable upgrade further addresses the global capacity demands such as fast internet connectivity, data-hungry applications, high-quality video-on-demand and increasing social media usage," he says.
According to Telkom, the SAT-3/WASC cable systems havebeen upgraded from 420 Gb/s in the northern segments to 920 Gb/s, while southern segments have increased from 340 Gb/s to 800 Gb/s.
"SAT-3/WASC is currently operated with full in-system protection and the doubling of the capacity continues to position this cable as one of the leaders on the Sub-Saharan African coastline," says the telco in a statement.
"Offering one of the lowest latency routes from Africa to Europe, this SAT-3/WASC upgrade caters for much-needed high-speed connectivity. With sixteen landing points spread between Europe, Africa and Asia, the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cables provide access to global markets."
The telco notes that its direct ownership and investment in other cable systems including the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), allows it to "package solutions using diverse routes to the rest of the world".