SACS (South Atlantic Cable System)

Overview

The South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) is a transoceanic submarine cable connecting the west coast of Africa to the east coast of South America. Operated by Angola Cables, it entered service in mid-2018 and carries a design capacity of 40 Tb/s — substantial capacity for a route that had historically been underserved by direct fibre infrastructure.

Route and Landing Points

SACS makes landfall at Sangano, Angola, on the African side, and at two points in Brazil: Fernando de Noronha, the remote Atlantic archipelago, and Fortaleza, the major northeastern Brazilian city that serves as one of South America's principal cable hubs. The routing through Fernando de Noronha reflects both geographic logic and the island's established role as a waypoint in South Atlantic cable geography.

The Luanda-to-Fortaleza corridor is the cable's primary axis, forming a relatively direct path across the South Atlantic — a stretch of ocean that, despite connecting two populous and resource-rich continents, has seen comparatively limited dedicated cable capacity compared with the North Atlantic or intra-Asian corridors.

Ownership and Context

Angola Cables, the Angolan carrier behind SACS, positioned the system as a strategic asset for routing traffic between Africa, South America, and onward to North America and Europe. By controlling a direct transoceanic link, Angola Cables gained a measure of independence from legacy routing paths that would otherwise send African-South American traffic on longer, less direct journeys through cables designed with different traffic flows in mind.

Build details for SACS are not publicly documented in available records.

Regional Significance

For the South Atlantic specifically, SACS represents a meaningful addition to the cable map. Fortaleza's role as a Brazilian cable hub means onward connectivity into South America is well-established from the Brazilian landing, while the Angolan terminus positions Luanda as a potential distribution point for traffic moving deeper into sub-Saharan Africa.