Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks has been awarded the development of the Sonangol Offshore Optical Cable (SOOC), a project aimed at reducing the cost-per-bit associated with the delivery of data traffic to Angola, including its offshore oil and gas production facilities.

Spanning 1,900 km, the SOOC undersea network will connect to landing points at four locations along the Angolan coast and will allow the country’s oil and gas industry to benefit from a large offshore data bandwidth with high availability, high reliability and low latency, Alcatel-Lucent wrote.

SOOC will enable better operational efficiency and optimize operational costs and will also bring significant benefits to the Angolan economy, as a high-speed connection will be established between the Luanda area and Cabinda to fulfill national telecom needs. The development phase is under way and construction work is scheduled to start in second half of 2016.

Yohann Bénard, Oil & Gas General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, said: “After connecting Angola to the global network through several undersea cables, ASN is pleased to further contribute to the development of the Angolan fiber optical infrastructure. This award is a prime illustration that submarine fiber-optic technology is becoming the standard telecommunication medium for offshore assets. It further demonstrates our leadership in the platform connectivity market, which is one of the priorities of ASN’s industrial plan to diversify into the oil and gas sector.”