South Atlantic Express Provides Ultra-High-Speed Cable from South Africa to U.S. through Virginia Beach Landing Site

May 8, 2018

ACA International, LLC, which recently announced the relocation of its corporate headquarters to Virginia Beach, has announced a partnership with South Atlantic Express International Ltd.

(SAEx) to land the third high speed subsea cable in Virginia Beach. ACA will be the landing party and neutral co-location service provider for the main trunk of the SAEx cable.The 72 terabit per second bandwidth SAEx cable will be the only system connecting South Africa directly to the U.S. It will combine with a partner system from Fortaleza, Brazil to offer a truly diverse transatlantic network, with a planned second phase from South Africa to Asia.

"This is the third high-speed cable agreement to be finalized in Virginia Beach," said Virginia Beach Economic Development Director Warren D. Harris. "This new connection from South Africa is a significant addition to our global connectivity infrastructure, and strengthens the city's position as a Tier One digital community." The world's fastest subsea data cables installed by Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius connect Virginia Beach to Europe and South America. Globalinx Data Centers is also building a 150,000-square-foot, three-phased data center campus in proximity to the Telxius Cable Landing Station in Virginia Beach."

The addition of SAEx to our open and neutral cable landing station is significant as it provides a direct link for both South Africa and LATAM into our new Digital Port in Virginia Beach," said Joel Ogren, CEO at ACA International. "The collaboration with SAEx and the deployment of the SAEx subsea cable system will enable us to foster cost-effective, high-speed broadband connectivity between Southern Africa and the Americas."

Dr. Rosalind Thomas, Managing Director of SAEx International, said, "Extending SAEx to the United States will boost access to the worldwide infrastructure and open up traffic diversity to increase access and service reliability as demand from consumers and businesses grow rapidly. We are pleased to be collaborating with ACA International in the expansion of services and applications that are enabled by high-bandwidth networks, which are a catalyst for economic and social progress."

ACA International previously announced plans to purchase a 10.2-acre site in Corporate Landing Business Park for a 130,000-square-foot facility that will house its new corporate headquarter offices, a tier III data center providing neutral co-location services and also serve as the cable landing station.

"In addition to being the newest cable landing destination on the East Coast, Virginia Beach has a robust broadband infrastructure that is being upgraded to support the next generation of telecommunication systems," said Ben Davenport, Virginia Beach City Council. "A 126-linear mile municipal fiber network provides connectivity throughout the region ensuring municipal, educational and commercial facilities have access to the best digital technology available. The digital infrastructure is also available to help private carriers provide high-quality, high-speed service to our citizens."

Virginia Beach has already laid the ground work for a world-class telecommunications system complete with available cable landing and data center sites, certified power requirements by Dominion Energy, available fiber access hubs and permits in place. ABOUT ACA International, LLCACA International, LLC. is headquartered in Vint Hill, Virginia (USA) and provides personnel and services to support the global telecom industry. In addition, the company. designs/builds/operates critical infrastructure facilities including cable landing stations and Tier III/IV neutral co-location facilities. For more information on ACA International and the Virginia Beach, Virginia Cable Landing Station and neutral Co-Location services, please visit www.ACAIntl.net.

Contact: JOEL OGREN, President/CEO Joel@ACAIntl.net.ABOUT SAEX INTERNATIONAL LTD. SAEx International Ltd, based in Mauritius with a subsidiary company (SAEx SA (Pty) Ltd) in South Africa, is building the South Atlantic Express (SAEx) cable, which will offer a minimum design capacity of 72Tbit/s (about 72 000Gbit/s), and will connect Mtunzini on KwaZulu-Natal's north coast to Yzerfontein north of Cape Town, with branching units in East Londonand Port Elizabeth. It will then cross the South Atlantic to Fortaleza in Brazil to link to a partner system, with a direct link to Virginia Beach, Virginia being planned as its final development on this phase. Contact: Dr. Rosalind Thomas, Managing Director, Rosalind@saexsa.co.za.

The mission of the Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development is to attract and retain national and international businesses to stimulate capital investment and create jobs. The Department of Economic Development received re-accreditation through the International Economic Development Council in 2016 and is one of only 50 economic development organizations in the world to have this recognition. Virginia Beach was named America's #1 best big city to live in by wallethub.com. For more information, visit www.yesvirginiabeach.com