SAex
SAex (South Atlantic Express) is a proposed submarine communications cable linking South Africa to the United States with branches to Namibia, Saint Helena, and Brazil.
| Cable type | Fibre-optic |
|---|---|
| Fate | Planned |
| Construction beginning | 2019 |
| First traffic | 2021 (planned) |
| Design capacity | 108 TBit/s |
| Landing points | |
| Area served | South Africa, Namibia, Saint Helena and Brazil |
| Owner(s) | SAEx International Ltd |
| Website | www.saex.net |
The project was announced in 2011 by eFive Telecoms (Pty) Ltd, who led the project during the early feasibility studies. In November 2013 South Atlantic Express Cable Company (Pty) Ltd took over responsibility and was renamed to SimplCom South Africa (Pty) Ltd after SimplCom Inc. (Canada) acquired a controlling shareholding in the former.
In April, 2011 the Bank of China announced that it was interested in investing 60% of the funds required for the project while the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa also had expressed interest in providing funding. In June 2011 the project was expected to cost R3 billion to complete. A revised configuration (cable branch to Namibia instead of Angola, additional branch to Saint Helena, and four instead of three fibre pairs), technological improvements and lower costs of technology are expected to reduce the projected capacity prices of the original design. As of May 2014 the project had funding interest from numerous private and public financial institutions.
As of October 2018, desktop surveying had begun.