Freetown, Sierra Leone

Freetown, Sierra Leone: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast in the country's Western Area. As a major port city, Freetown serves as Sierra Leone's connection to the global submarine cable network. One submarine cable lands at Freetown, linking Sierra Leone directly into a long-haul intercontinental cable system that spans the Atlantic coastline of Africa and extends northward to Europe.

The single cable serving Freetown is the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) system, a large-scale cable that connects West African nations with France. Through this connection, Freetown participates in a corridor that runs along the western seaboard of Africa, linking Sierra Leone with neighboring coastal nations including Gambia, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as providing a direct route to Europe.

Cables Landing at Freetown

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable is 17,000 km in length and reached ready-for-service (RFS) status in 2012. In addition to Freetown, Sierra Leone, the cable lands in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, and Gambia. The ACE system traces a route along the West African Atlantic coastline before extending northward to France, making it one of the longer cable systems serving the West African region. Its reach across multiple West African countries and its terminus in France establishes an intercontinental path between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

Regional Context

Freetown is Sierra Leone's sole submarine cable landing point, meaning the entirety of the country's submarine cable connectivity is concentrated at this single location. With only one cable landing at one landing point, Freetown represents both the entry and exit point for all of Sierra Leone's internationally connected submarine cable infrastructure.

Network Role

Freetown functions as a single-cable terminus within the ACE system's broader multi-country network. Rather than serving as a hub where multiple cables converge, it is one of several landing points along the ACE route, connecting Sierra Leone into a chain that includes six other countries spanning West Africa and reaching as far as France. This positions Freetown within an intercontinental corridor linking West Africa to Europe along the Atlantic coast.

Within the regional submarine cable graph, Freetown's role as the only landing point in Sierra Leone means that its connection to the ACE system represents the country's entire international submarine cable presence, making the health and availability of that single cable link directly relevant to Sierra Leone's international connectivity.