SAEx1 - South Atlantic Express

SAEx1 is a phased development project designed to minimise the time between construction and revenue service, the system will run initially from Cape Town to a branching unit near to Fortaleza in Brazil where it will interconnect to a partner system providing onward access at RFS of this section to an established landing and interface point on the US east coast. Once FCC approvals have been obtained, this will be followed up with a new segment direct to the USA from the branching unit as traffic grows providing customers with path and landing station diversity on the northern section of the route, at Virginia Beach. SAEx1 will therefore provide both capacity and redundancy to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth-hungry markets with ultra-broadband access around the Atlantic, as well as enhance the role of digital connectivity in regional economic development.

SAEx1 will feature a minimum of six fibre pairs with a minimum combined capacity of 108 Tbps and will be the only system connecting South Africa directly to the USA, and added with the partner system’s fibre pair link from Fortaleza, will offer a truly diverse trans-Atlantic network, which will then connect to the Indian Ocean Rim market, via a second phase from South Africa to Asia (SAEx2).

Virginia Beach and Wall to Cape Town

SAEx2 - South Asia Express

In phase 2 the SAEx system will extend its build to the East, via an international system — offering a minimum initial system design capacity of 108 Tbps by at least six fibre pairs - a route of about 13,900km extending an express system between Cape Town, Singapore and India, and with two further fibre pairs between Cape Town and Amanzimtoti. SAEx2 will feature four branching units facing Amanzimtoti, Mauritius, India and upper Malay Peninsula.

Once interconnected SAEx2 together with SAEx1 will establish a truly global digital superhighway, providing both a unique route from Asia to the Americas and creating a secure new link on the cable map of the world, one which avoids all the common choke points, such as the Med-Red Sea route and the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Amanzimtoti to India and Singapore

• SAEx provides a secure all subsea routing from the Indian Ocean and Asia to the Americas, avoiding geological and geopolitical hazards present on current paths. The South Atlantic shows greater geophysical stability than the Mediterranean, Far East and Pacific, while the western side of the Indian Ocean is much calmer seismically than the eastern Indian Ocean.
• SAEx uses a route through the geologically safe and ‘peaceful’ South Atlantic and Indian Oceans with physical separation from established transit hubs and known geological hazards that occur on existing paths.
• SAEx provides an all subsea route from Indian Ocean network nodes in the Gulf Region, India and East Asia to South America and the USA. To the extent possible, SAEx avoids narrow straits and transits through potentially unstable areas and unreliable overland transit networks.
• SAEx will provide the only secure subsea connectivity between cable systems on the east and west coasts of Africa.