Cameroon’s First Subsea Cable Installed

Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd., a global submarine network provider, has recently completed undersea installation of the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS). The submarine system is scheduled to be operational by last quarter of 2015.

According to the service provider, this is Cameroon’s first submarine cable which is wholly owned and solely funded by the Cameroon government. The NCSCS will deliver 12.8 Tbps of capacity to broadband users in both nations by the end of 2015. The NCSCS will cover approximately 1,100 km and is expected to benefit both countries Cameroon and Nigeria significantly. The system will directly link state Kribi in Cameroon with state Lagos in Nigeria. 

The NCSCS utilizes Huawei Marine’s Wavelength Division Multiplex (WDM) and Optical Transport Network (OTN) technologies. Moreover the submarine cable will use the world’s first titanium-cased six-fiber pair repeater. This product is the smallest repeater as well as about 40 percent lighter than any other optical amplifier. The titanium casing has very high burial capability and allows simultaneous lay and burial capability beneath the seabed, resulting in the considerable reduction in installation costs along with reducing various system risk associated with the cables laying process.