WCA March 2016

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16 Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2016
Industrynews
HUAWEI Marine has announced that
the recently completed 14,530km
system upgrade of the west African
cable system (WACS), is now live,
having completed a stringent customer
certification and testing programme.
WACS is owned and operated by a
consortium of 18 international and
regional carriers. When first launched
in 2012, WACS was deployed with 10G
technology, and an initial design
capacity of 5.12Tbps.
An upgrade to 100G uses Huawei’s
third generation soft decision-forward
error correction (SD-FEC) and
bit-interleaved technologies that
guarantee the compatibility of 100Gb
channels with the 10Gb channels
originally deployed. WACS’ design
capacity has now increased to 14.5Tb.
“Thanks to the efficiency and expertise
of Huawei Marine’s delivery team…
the WACS upgrade was completed
smoothly and on time, fulfilling
our on-going commitment to our
customers,” said Vishen Maharaj,
chair of the WACS consortium’s
management committee.
“The increasing reliance on Internet
and mobile applications, high-
definition video, and other data
intensive applications such as cloud
services are fundamental drivers
underpinning the increasing demand
for bandwidth,” said Mike Constable,
CEO of Huawei Marine.
“The additional capacity now available
on the WACS submarine cable will
greatly enrich international comm-
unications.”
West African Cable System
Website:
14,530km WACS cable now live after upgrade
Hengtong’s 75 per cent stake in Aberdare
Hengtong Optic-electric Co Ltd, a Chinese power and fibre optic cable
manufacturer, is to acquire a 75 per cent stake in Aberdare Cables Proprietary
Limited, and a 100 per cent stake in Aberdare Holdings Europe BV Limited.
Aberdare Cables Proprietary, founded in 1946, is among the biggest cable
makers in South Africa, offering low and medium voltage electrical cables to
industry segments including power transmission and distribution, railway,
petrochemical, and residential construction.
Aberdare Holdings Europe includes the wholly owned Cables de
Comunicaciones Zaragoza SL (CCZSL) of Spain, and Portugal’s
Alcobre-Condutores Electricos SA.
Hengtong Optic-electric Co Ltd – China Website: