Huawei Marine is contracted to build Cameroon-Brazil trans-Atlantic submarine cable to connect Africa to Latin America

[Tianjin, China, October 22, 2015] Huawei Marine announced today it will construct the Cameroon-Brazil Cable System (CBCS), connecting Africa to Latin America. The project is invested by CamTel and China Unicom; Telefónica will support the initiative providing its international facilities and experience.

CBCS, which is approximately 6,000 km long, will cross the south Atlantic sea connecting Kribi in Cameroon to Fortaleza in Brazil. Utilising Huawei Marine’s leading 100 G technology, it will have an initial system capacity of 32 Tbps with 4 fiber pairs and come into service at the end of 2017. Huawei Marine will deploy its 6fp submarine Repeater 1660, the industry’s first innovative titanium repeater, which boasts a slim-line profile to allow direct lay and plough burial. This simultaneous operation significantly reduces system installation costs by eliminating the need for an expensive secondary, post-lay burial operation.

David Nkoto Emane, General Manager of CamTel, Lu Yimin, President of China Unicom, along with representatives from Telefónica and Huawei Marine gathered in Yuande, Cameroon, last October 14th to seal the agreement and celebrate the cooperation on CBCS.

General Manager of CamTel, David Nkoto Emane said, “At present, when international data from mainland Africa transmits to America it is forced to divert to Western Europe first before going to America. However, the CBCS will provide a direct route from Africa to America, as well as provide Cameroon, Brazil and other neighboring countries with a high capacity, reliable and fast transmission channel.”

The president of China Unicom, Lu Yimin, said: “Africa and Latin America are strategic emerging regions for our global business. China Unicom is very pleased to partner with CamTel, Telefónica and Huawei Marine to build this high speed and low latency infrastructure to connect Africa and Latin America. Not only will it help meet the increasing demand for local internet access, it will also improve our service to Chinese enterprises which have entered into the African and Latin American markets.”

“Telefónica as the leading Digital Telco in Latin America brings into the project its existing national and international facilities, years of local experience and future commitment. We are delighted to partner with China Unicom and CamTel to jointly provide facilities, and extensions for CBCS. The CBCS will offer a new reliable route in the South Atlantic enabling us to provide a better secure service to our customers”, said Juan Revilla, CEO Wholesale Business Unit in Telefónica Business Solutions “Huawei Marine is very honored to be building the trans-Atlantic CBCS submarine cable. Thanks to our industry leading 100G technology and innovative products, we are well positioned to provide our customers with high-speed reliable and secure networks,” said Mike Constable, the CEO of Huawei Marine. “Having delivered more than 20 submarine cable projects in the past six years, our experience demonstrates we have the capability and confidence to meet our customer’s requirements in both system design and delivery.”