WACS to be supported by Cape Verde-based Alcatel-Lucent cable ship to ensure rapid response time
SubOptic, Paris, April 24, 2013 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) consortium have signed a contract for the maintenance of more than 9,000km of the WACS system linking South Africa to Portugal. In commercial service since May 2012, WACS interconnects 13 African countries, unleashing a new wave of broadband capacity on the continent and enhancing international connectivity.
Under the new agreement WACS will join the Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA), allowing the consortium to access Alcatel-Lucent’s maintenance vessels, as well as experienced, fully trained, and certified specialist personnel for cable repairs.
In delivering high-speed bandwidth of more than five terabits-per-second, the WACS infrastructure provides open access to regional telecom operators and Internet service providers. Furthermore, it contributes to opening up broadband in Africa, lowering the cost of access and allowing the delivery of innovative applications such as e-education and e-health, contributing to the improvement of people’s lives.
Commenting, Dr Angus Hay, Chairman of WACS Management Committee said: “With the start of its commercial service, WACS is already giving impetus to African economies along its cable route. This makes it even more critical to ensure optimal network availability and quality of service. Alcatel-Lucent’s world-class technical support and capabilities, including state-of-the-art cable ships, will further enhance the reliability that our low-latency system delivers to meet the performance and stability required.”
Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks said: “This contract underlines Alcatel-Lucent’s leading role as a marine service provider, helping operators maintain their networks with the highest standards of service reliability and at the highest level of end-to-end efficiency. With the recent establishment of our depot in Cape Verde, we are able to offer the shortest possible mobilization time for any repair operations off West Africa.”
About Alcatel-Lucent’s Submarine Networks marine operations
Alcatel-Lucent capitalizes on its unique experience as a turnkey provider, delivering a wide range of installation and commissioning, and marine operations and maintenance performed by its fleet of seven cable ships. Alcatel-Lucent also offers related services, including the Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA). Alcatel-Lucent private maintenance agreements offer a unique solution adapting to the particular maintenance philosophies of individual cable owners and their needs. Alcatel-Lucent currently maintains over 300,000 km of critical submarine cable infrastructure worldwide.
About WACS
The West Africa Cable System (WACS) is a 4 fibre pair, 5.12 Tbps fiber optic submarine cable system that links Southern Africa and Europe, spanning the west coast of Africa from Cape Town, South Africa, and terminating in London, United Kingdom, with a total of fifteen landing points. WACS lands in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, Portugal, and the UK.
The WACS Consortium members are: Angola Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cabo Verde Telecom, Congo Telecom, Gateway Communications, MTN Group, Portugal Telecom, SCPT (DRC), Togo Telecom, Tata Communications / Neotel, Telecom Namibia / BTC, Telkom SA, Vodacom Group, Vodafone Ghana and Vodafone Spain.
About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU)
The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world’s foremost research centers, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry
Alcatel-Lucent innovations are regularly recognized by international institutions for their positive impact on society. In 2012 and for the second year running, Alcatel-Lucent was named one of the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators, recognition for the company’s continued addition to its world-class patent portfolio, one of the largest in the telecom industry. Alcatel-Lucent has also been recognized for its sustainability performance. In 2012 the company was ranked Technology Supersector Leader by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Through its innovations, Alcatel-Lucent is making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission of Realizing the Potential of a Connected World
With operations throughout the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2012 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris
For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: 
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