The 10,556km Monet cable has been fully operational since 2018 and originally connected Boca Raton, Florida to both Fortaleza and Santos, Brazil with an initial design capacity of 64Tbps.
Now, the cable will reach an additional point of access in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and also have direct access to the AngoNAP tier III data center in Fortaleza, Brazil and the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) landing station.
“Our partnership with Flexential will strengthen interconnection options across southern and West Africa,” said Ângelo Gama, CEO of Angola Cables. Gama says that this high-capacity connectivity is well-suited to serve multiple industries from the oil and gas sector to scientific and academic research.
“Plugging into Flexential’s extensive network of data centers in the U.S. will benefit our clients in Africa by not only extending their presence and exposure to the highly active US market but will open up further opportunities for enterprises in Africa to establish direct connections with parent companies, subsidiaries, business partners and suppliers across the U.S.”
The Monet consortium comprised Brazilian telco and ISP, Algar Telecom, wholesale operator Angola Cables, Antel and Google, which was also the US landing party for Monet. The initial landing in Florida is housed at an Equinix data centre.
The extension confirmed today isn't the first upgrade for the system. Last year Angola Cables turned to Ciena to boost capacity via its GeoMesh solution, which added 2.2Tbps.
“Given the significant presence we’re already seeing from customers, including over-the-top providers, hyperscalers and Fortune 500 companies in the African region, we’re excited to bring these organizations a new level of international capacity and connectivity via new cross connect options,” said Tim Parker, senior vice president, network strategy, Flexential. “The extension of the MONET cable into Fort Lauderdale is a significant step forward for international connectivity.”
