Sesimbra, Portugal

Sesimbra: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Sesimbra is a municipality in the Setúbal District of Portugal, situated at the foothills of the Serra da Arrábida on the country's Atlantic-facing coastline. Its natural harbour and coastal position make it a practical landfall for submarine cables connecting Europe with Africa and beyond. Five submarine cables land at Sesimbra, making it one of the more active landing points in the Portuguese national submarine cable network.

The cables landing at Sesimbra collectively serve corridors spanning the west coast of Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and the South Atlantic. Among the most notable are Equiano, a modern system completed in 2023 linking Portugal to multiple African nations, and the Europe India Gateway (EIG), a long-haul system connecting Europe to India via the Middle East and North Africa. Together, these cables position Sesimbra as a gateway between the Iberian Peninsula and a wide arc of African and Asian destinations.

Cables Landing at Sesimbra

Equiano is a 15,000 km cable that entered service in 2023. In addition to Sesimbra, it lands in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, and Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, creating a direct link between Portugal and multiple points along the western and southern African coastline.

Europe India Gateway (EIG) is a 15,000 km cable that entered service in 2011. Beyond Sesimbra, it connects to Gibraltar, Monaco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, and India, forming a long intercontinental route from Western Europe through the Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Indian subcontinent.

SAT-3/WASC is a 14,350 km cable that entered service in 2002. It links Sesimbra with Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Angola, constituting one of the earlier major cable systems connecting Europe to West Africa.

Sagres is a 302 km cable that entered service in 1998. Its endpoints are entirely within Portugal, making it a domestic intra-national system connecting different Portuguese landing points.

BUGIO is a 73 km cable that entered service in 1996 and also connects exclusively within Portugal, serving as another short domestic link between Portuguese landing points.

Regional Context

Within Portugal's network of 19 landing points hosting 21 submarine cables in total, Sesimbra ranks among the more connected locations, placing in the top 95% by cable count. The only landing point with a notably higher count is Carcavelos, which hosts eight cables. Funchal, Sines, and Ponta Delgada each host between three and four cables, placing Sesimbra ahead of the majority of Portuguese landing points in terms of international connectivity.

Network Role

Sesimbra functions as a multi-cable hub on the Portuguese Atlantic coast, hosting three major international systems alongside two shorter domestic cables. The three long-haul cables — Equiano, EIG, and SAT-3/WASC — collectively cover routes to more than a dozen countries across West Africa, East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The two domestic cables, Sagres and BUGIO, extend Sesimbra's role into the intra-Portuguese network.

The combination of intercontinental and domestic systems at a single landing point means that Sesimbra serves as both an international entry point for transoceanic traffic and a node in Portugal's internal submarine infrastructure. Within the regional submarine cable graph, Sesimbra's concentration of Africa-facing systems makes it a distinctively African-corridor-oriented landing point along the Portuguese coast.