The cable, which is being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), has been developed in collaboration with Equatorial Guinea’s Gestor de Infraestructura de Telecomunicaciones (GITGE).
ASN announced that the Ultramar GE subsea cable system had been built using its Ile de Sein cableship. The 263km-long unrepeatered system runs from the island of Annobon in Equatorial Guinea to Sao Tome, in Sao Tome et Principe.
The cable system will relieve the island’s reliance on satellite services, boosting connectivity and high speed capacity. GITGE, which is part of Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Transport, Technology, Postal Services and Telecommunications, operates services on a number of subsea cable systems, including ACE, Ceiba-1, and Ceiba-2.
Oscar Ondo Ngomo Nchama, General Director of GITGE, said: “Our efforts are focused on expanding connectivity and increasing the adoption of modern technologies in Equatorial Guinea. The completion of this system, an example of regional cooperation in development, will bring benefits in greater speeds and bandwidth that will contribute to the digital inclusion of the island of Annobon.”
For ASN, which is part of Nokia, it is the latest subsea project that the firm has worked on. Recently, it saw the INDIGO cable system, linking in Singapore to Australia, land in Perth – completion of the first half of the project.
Overall, ASN has more than 600,000km of optical subsea systems deployed worldwide – enough to cover the earth 15 times. It also offers maintenance services through its fleet of cable ships.
Philippe Piron, president of Alcatel Submarine Networks, said: “Following the ACE and CEIBA 1 projects, we are delighted to assist GITGE reinforce Equatorial Guinea telecom infrastructure providing the people of Annobon the mean to be connected to the rest of the world with ultimate performance and reliability in such a remote location.”
