WCA July 2012

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Industrynews
Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2012 17
Bahra Cables Ltd, a cable manufacturing company in Saudi Arabia, has signed a
contact worth over $66 million with Saudi Bin Laden Group to supply electrical
cables for the Shamiya project, part of a government project to develop the areas
around the Makkah Haram.
Saudi Bin Laden Group has been assigned all the site development and
expansion work, beginning with infrastructure upgrading.
Engineer Talal Idriss, CEO of Bahra Cables Ltd Co, said the company will supply
fire-resistant low and medium voltage cables that emit limited smoke and no
halogen when exposed to flame.
Bahra Cables holds many accreditation certificates such as KEMA, IPH, SASO,
LPCB, CSA and BASEC, among others, in recognition of the quality of its
products.
The company is also ISO 9001: 2008 certified for its range of medium and high
pressure cables up to 132kV, and is the first Saudi cable company to receive ISO
14001: 2004 and OHSAS certifications.
Bahra Cables – Saudi Arabia Website:
The 14,000km West African Cable
System (WACS), the first new subsea
telecommunications cable on Africa’s
west coast since Sat-3 was launched
11 years ago, was officially launched in
May.
Angus Hay, co-chair of the WACS
management committee and chief
technology officer at Neotel, says
testing of WACS has progressed well
and that the system was “essentially
ready” for commercial service.
An official launch function took place
at Yzerfontein, the site of the cable’s
South African landing north of Cape
Town. Commercial traffic should begin
flowing across the system at the same
time or shortly thereafter, promising to
put further downward pressure on
broadband prices in South Africa.
The cable, which has a design
capacity of 5.1Tbit/s and has cost
$600m to build, will probably have in
the region of 400Gbit/s of capacity
when it becomes available for
commercial service — more than the
total design capacity of the older Sat-3
cable at 340Gbit/s.
Mr Hay says the WACS management
committee is in the process of
“accepting” the cable from the
supplier, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine
Networks. This entails signing off the
final contractual agreements.
WACS – South Africa
Website:
Bahra Cables’ $66m contract
New subsea cable
for west Africa
Fujikura acquires
Nistica
Japanese wire and cable
manufacturer Fujikura has acquired
Nistica.
The acquisition will complement its
portfolio of optical fibres, cables
and optical devices. Among the
products that Nistica offers are its
Full Fledge series of wavelength
selective switches (WSS).
Fujikura has invested in Nistica
since 2007. As part of the purchase
agreement, Fujikura will acquire the
remaining shares in Nistica and the
company will become a Fujikura
subsidiary. NTT Electronics will
maintain its share in the company.
Fujikura – Japan
Website: