Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, the undersea cables subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent is set to roll out Phase II of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system to serve the continent’s broadband sector.

The ACE 5,000km extension will run from the Gulf of Guinea island of Sao Tomé-et-Principe to South Africa, according to the company.

Alcatel-Lucent says the project will support cost-effective delivery of broadband services and digital applications for education, healthcare and other e-services, reaching an additional 200 million people through this extension.

Phase I of ACE covered 11,500 km linking Sao Tomé and Principe to France – via Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Tenerife (Spain) and Portugal.

Phase II of ACE will link Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and South Africa, including an extension to Cameroon, Alcateal-Lucent says.

Yves Ruggeri, Chairman of the ACE Management Committee says “the extension of the ACE system to South Africa is a significant milestone that confirms our commitment to address the connectivity challenges facing Africa. ASN’s know-how and technological innovations, which we have recently tested on our existing network, will support us in further developing direct connectivity within Africa and to the overall objective of ACE to reduce communication costs and drive social and economic growth in the continent.”

Also commenting, Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks says “we are pleased to continue our collaboration with the ACE consortium, which dates back since the beginning of the project and demonstrates the consortium’s trust in our ability to accompany them in their strategic implementations from end to end. This further development of the ACE system underlines the demand for bandwidth, to broaden opportunities in terms of connectivity, data and information sharing.”