Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Public money, private plans: MPs demand Post Office transparency

      13 June 2025

      Coal to cash: South Africa gets major boost for energy shift

      13 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      10 red flags for Apple investors

      13 June 2025
    • World

      Yahoo tries to make its mail service relevant again

      13 June 2025

      Qualcomm shows off new chip for AI smart glasses

      11 June 2025

      Trump tariffs to dim 2025 smartphone shipments

      4 June 2025

      Shrimp Jesus and the AI ad invasion

      4 June 2025

      Apple slams EU rules as ‘flawed and costly’ in major legal pushback

      2 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025

      South Africa unveils big state digital reform programme

      12 May 2025

      Is this the end of Google Search as we know it?

      12 May 2025
    • TCS

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025

      TCS | Sentiv, and the story behind the buyout of Altron Nexus

      3 June 2025

      TCS | Signal restored: Unpacking the Blue Label and Cell C turnaround

      28 May 2025
    • Opinion

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025

      Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

      29 May 2025

      Solar panic? The truth about SSEG, fines and municipal rules

      14 April 2025

      Data protection must be crypto industry’s top priority

      9 April 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » In-depth » New subsea cable: all the details

    New subsea cable: all the details

    By Duncan McLeod12 February 2013
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Musa Phungula
    Musa Phungula

    Musa Phungula, the man behind a new subsea cable that will link to similar systems landing at Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal and Yzerfontein north of Cape Town, plans to build two huge, 6000sq m data centres to house servers for international content companies and local telecommunications operators.

    The new cable system, which could cost as much as US$100m, will extend around South Africa’s coastline between Mtunzini and Yzerfontein and will have landing stations at East London and Port Elizabeth. From the two Eastern Cape cities, the cable will connect to terrestrial fibre infrastructure from companies such as Telkom, Broadband Infraco, FibreCo and Dark Fibre Africa.

    Consisting of either two or four fibre pairs and using the latest 100Gbit/s wavelength technology, the system, which is called the TTD cable after the holding company Techteledata, will have a design capacity of up to 16Tbit/s, according to Phungula.

    An engineer by profession, Phungula has worked for Transtel, MTN, Cisco, Vodacom and Seacom, among others. He spoke to TechCentral in a one-on-one interview on Tuesday.

    The plan to build the TTD cable appears set to ignite a race between Phungula and eFive Telecoms, the South African company behind the South Atlantic Express (SAEx) cable, which will also extend along the same route along the country’s coastline, but which will also run across the Atlantic Ocean to Fortaleza in Brazil. The Brics cable, a much longer system that will extend from Russia in the east, around South Africa and through South America to the US, will also cover some of the same ground.

    Phungula believes there is potentially an opportunity for Techteledata, eFive and the consortium behind the Brics cable to work together. “This project is going to reduce the capital needs of projects like the Brics cable and SAEx,” he says. “They can reduce their investments, plus they can buy what they need when they need it on the TTD cable.”

    The TTD cable (image: TechTeleData)
    The TTD cable route (image: Techteledata)

    Because the scale of the TTD cable project is much smaller than either SAEx or the Brics cable, Phungula believes that Techteledata will be able to fast-track its launch. Though he has set a date of September 2015 for the launch of commercial services, he says it could happen much quicker than that if the necessary permitting can be speeded up, which is possible given that only the South African government needs to be involved, unlike with the transnational systems.

    So far, the Industrial Development Corp has expressed interest in helping fund the project, and Phungula is talking to other potential financiers and technical partners, though he can’t reveal their names as he has signed nondisclosure agreements with them.

    Techteledata has contracted France’s Axiom to conduct a technical feasibility study, which will begin in March.

    Phungula says the planned data centres, one in Mtunzini and the other in Yzerfontein, will be built with the idea of attracting overseas content companies to serve African consumers. Despite huge investments by South African telecommunications operators and by independent data-centre operator Teraco Data Environments in recent years, Phungula believes there will be sufficient demand to justify the construction of the two facilities.

    “The data centres will be there to increase the traffic on the cables along African shores because they are underutilised at the moment. We are already engaging big content providers to book space. If we have three big anchor tenants, then that will be enough to [finance] the data centres.”  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media



    Axiom Brics Cable Broadband Infraco Dark Fibre Africa FibreCo IDC Musa Phungula SAex Seacom Techteledata Telkom Teraco TTD TTD cable
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleUgly turn in Vodacom, WirelessG battle
    Next Article When Pule goes

    Related Posts

    MVNO boom is reshaping South Africa’s mobile market

    12 June 2025

    Watch | Lunga Siyo on Telkom’s big growth plans

    11 June 2025

    Capex clash: Vodacom, MTN and Telkom battle over network supremacy

    11 June 2025
    Company News

    Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series: smarter sensors, sharper design, stronger performance

    13 June 2025

    Change Logic and BankservAfrica set new benchmark with PayShap roll-out

    13 June 2025

    SAPHILA 2025 – transcending with purpose, connection and AI-powered vision

    13 June 2025
    Opinion

    Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

    2 June 2025

    South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

    2 June 2025

    Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

    29 May 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.