Multinational telecoms company, Angola Cables has announced that it has entered into a strategic business partnership with Silica Networks in Argentina and Silica Networks in Chile to connect their terrestrial fiber networks to the recently commissioned South Atlantic Cable System (SACS).
SACS will be Silica Networks’ preferred route in the Southern Hemisphere, providing fiber operators and content providers in Argentina and Chile with a direct routing between South America and Africa with onward connections to markets in Asia.
Angola Cables CEO, António Nunes said, “The partnership would strengthen the economic links for the large digital content producers in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, setting up a commercial conduit for them to share content with Africa and other markets, thus making it digitally possible to connect East with West.”
Now in operation, SACS is already starting to function as a strategic point of connection for the South Atlantic region for South American operators interested in reaching markets in the East at latencies five times lower than those that exist in the market today. The SACS cable will enable Africa to become an important bridge and pivot point for the exchange of information and data between East and West.”
Horácio Martinez, CEO of Silica Networks says, “This is a milestone for the digital economies of Argentina and Chile as it opens up new fronts for entrepreneurship for operators, fiber optic networks and broadband providers accessing the high-capacity services provided by SACS and Angola Cables to the African and Eastern markets.”
Silica Networks provides digital connectivity between Argentina, Brazil and Chile. With a unique network that crosses the Andes in four points and approaching São Paulo by two routes; one terrestrial and the other via submarine network. The link to SACS will extend their reach beyond Latin America and Africa, making it possible for the increased sharing of Spanish and Portuguese programming and other content to markets in Asia and vice versa.
The direct Southern Hemisphere neutral routing via SACS has a latency with less than 60% compared to current routing options across the Atlantic and offers high quality Internet traffic with high-speed broadband access on both sides of the South Atlantic.”
Nunes added, "This connection will certainly boost business development in the Latin American, African, Middle and Far Eastern markets, creating a new information highway that will promote a true digital revolution by contributing the establishment of new data exchanges between companies and users within these different regions.”
As part of this this strategic initiative, the interconnection of the fiber optic networks of both companies will result in access to the Pacific via Santiago de Chile, via Las Toninas in Buenos Aires, Argentina and SACS through Fortaleza, Brazil and across the Atlantic to Africa.