The West-African Cable System (WACS) will consist of more than 17 000 kilometres of fibre, snaking from the Cape, up the West African coast, touching at every country – some of which have never had direct international connectivity – and eventually terminating in London. The cable will cost around $640 million (R6.4 billion). 

Other undersea cables have received much more publicity, good and bad. Most notorious are Telkom’s South Atlantic Telecommunications Cable 3 (SAT-3) and South Africa Far East cable (SAFE). These have been used, critics say, to hold South Africa and some of its neighbours to ransom.