Infrastructure Tracker — Real-Time Project Status

The Infrastructure Tracker monitors the physical layer of Angola’s digital transformation in real time. Every submarine cable, terrestrial fiber route, mobile tower, data center, satellite ground station, and cloud infrastructure deployment is tracked from announcement through construction to operational status. The tracker converts what would otherwise be a fragmented collection of project announcements, construction updates, and commissioning reports into a unified operational view of Angola’s digital infrastructure build-out.

Physical infrastructure is the foundation constraint. No amount of software innovation, regulatory reform, or capital deployment produces digital transformation outcomes without the physical networks to carry data, the facilities to process it, and the access points to deliver it to users. The Infrastructure Tracker exists because understanding the state of the physical layer is prerequisite to understanding everything else.

Submarine Cable Monitoring

Angola’s international connectivity depends on submarine cable systems, and the Infrastructure Tracker monitors each system across several operational parameters.

SACS — South Atlantic Cable System connects Luanda to Fortaleza, Brazil, providing the first direct fiber link between Africa and South America. The tracker monitors total system capacity, lit capacity utilization, latency measurements, and the commercial services being delivered over the system. SACS represents Angola Cables’ flagship infrastructure asset and a critical component of the country’s strategy to position itself as a connectivity hub between continents.

WACS — West Africa Cable System runs along Africa’s western coast, connecting Angola to South Africa, West African nations, and onward to Europe via Portugal and the United Kingdom. The tracker monitors Angola’s capacity allocation on WACS, utilization rates, and the availability of upgrade capacity. WACS provides Angola’s primary connectivity route to European internet exchanges and content networks.

MONET connects Brazil to the United States, and Angola Cables’ participation in this system extends Angola’s connectivity reach into North American internet infrastructure. The tracker monitors how MONET capacity is packaged with SACS capacity to provide end-to-end Africa-Americas-US connectivity services.

2Africa is the Meta-led submarine cable system circumnavigating the African continent with a planned landing in Angola. The tracker monitors construction progress, expected ready-for-service dates, and the capacity that will become available to Angola upon commissioning. 2Africa represents a significant capacity uplift for Angola’s international connectivity and introduces new competitive dynamics in the wholesale bandwidth market.

Equiano is Google’s submarine cable running along Africa’s west coast. The tracker monitors whether Equiano includes an Angola landing point and, if so, the construction and commissioning timeline. Like 2Africa, Equiano represents potential additional capacity that would diversify Angola’s international connectivity beyond the Angola Cables-dominated architecture.

For each cable system, the tracker displays current operational status using a traffic-light system. Green indicates fully operational with normal performance. Yellow indicates operational with degraded performance or planned maintenance affecting capacity. Red indicates a cable cut, fault, or extended outage. Gray indicates a system under construction or not yet commissioned.

Terrestrial Fiber Backbone

Angola’s domestic fiber backbone is the critical infrastructure connecting provinces, cities, and ultimately end users to international connectivity. The tracker monitors fiber deployment across several dimensions.

Route Kilometers Deployed tracks the total length of fiber optic cable installed across Angola. This metric is broken down by operator — Angola Telecom’s backbone network, MS Telecom’s metro and long-haul deployments, Multitel’s fiber infrastructure, and other operators’ contributions. The tracker distinguishes between backbone routes (connecting cities and provinces), metro networks (within urban areas), and last-mile access networks (connecting to end-user premises).

Provincial Coverage maps which provinces have fiber connectivity and the density of that connectivity. Luanda Province has the highest fiber density, followed by Benguela and Huila. The tracker highlights provinces where fiber deployment is planned but not yet executed, creating a visual gap analysis of national coverage.

Backbone Route Completion tracks specific planned routes — Luanda to Malanje, Luanda to Huambo via Kwanza Sul, the Benguela railway corridor route, and others — against their completion milestones. Each route has a progress bar showing design, procurement, construction, testing, and commissioning phases.

Network Redundancy Assessment analyzes the fiber topology for single points of failure. Where only one fiber route connects a city or province, the tracker flags the vulnerability. Redundancy is critical for service reliability, and the tracker identifies where redundant routes exist and where they need to be built.

Capacity Utilization tracks how much of the installed fiber capacity is being used. Underutilized fiber represents latent capacity that can be activated to support growing demand. The tracker distinguishes between dark fiber (installed but not lit), lit fiber with available capacity, and fiber approaching capacity constraints.

Mobile Tower Infrastructure

Mobile network coverage depends on tower infrastructure, and the tracker monitors tower deployment with granularity that goes beyond operator coverage maps.

Tower Count by Operator tracks the total number of mobile towers operated or leased by each mobile operator — Unitel, Africell, and Movicel. This includes operator-owned towers, shared towers, and towers leased from independent tower companies. The total provides a ground-truth measure of physical network reach.

Tower Technology Mix tracks the generation of mobile technology deployed on each tower. A tower supporting only 2G/3G serves a different market capability than a tower supporting 4G LTE or emerging 5G technology. The tracker breaks down the tower base by technology generation, revealing the pace of network modernization.

Geographic Coverage Analysis maps tower locations against population density to calculate effective coverage — the percentage of the population within signal range of each technology generation. National coverage statistics often mask significant provincial variation, and the tracker provides provincial granularity.

New Tower Construction Rate tracks the pace of new tower deployment. This forward-looking metric indicates whether tower construction is accelerating, stable, or decelerating — providing a leading indicator of future coverage expansion.

Tower Sharing Progress monitors the development of tower sharing arrangements between operators. Tower sharing reduces deployment costs and accelerates coverage expansion. The tracker identifies where tower sharing agreements exist, their commercial terms where publicly available, and the coverage implications.

Data Center Development

Angola’s data center market is in an early but active development phase, and the tracker monitors every facility.

AngoNAP Luanda is Angola Cables’ flagship data center, providing colocation, interconnection, and cloud services. The tracker monitors rack capacity, power capacity (in megawatts), current occupancy rates, expansion plans, and the connectivity available within the facility (submarine cable access, peering, transit).

Government Data Centers tracks sovereign data center facilities built or planned under government programs. These facilities serve government systems, citizen-facing digital services, and data sovereignty requirements. The tracker monitors construction status, technical specifications, and commissioning timelines.

Commercial Data Center Projects tracks privately funded data center developments. As Angola’s cloud and hosting market grows, commercial operators are evaluating Luanda as a data center location. The tracker monitors announced projects, construction progress, and operational launch dates.

Data Center Power and Cooling tracks the critical infrastructure dependencies that determine data center viability. Reliable power supply and cooling capacity are the primary constraints on data center development in Angola. The tracker monitors power source diversification (grid, generator, solar), power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratings where available, and cooling technology deployment.

National Cloud Infrastructure

The National Cloud is among the most significant infrastructure initiatives in Angola’s digital transformation strategy, and the tracker provides dedicated monitoring.

Program Status tracks the overall National Cloud program against its announced milestones and timeline. The program’s scope includes sovereign cloud platform deployment, data localization infrastructure, government systems migration, and commercial cloud service availability.

Technology Stack monitors the technology partners and platforms selected for the National Cloud — the hyperscaler relationships, the systems integrators, and the application platforms being deployed.

Migration Progress tracks government systems and datasets being migrated to the National Cloud. Each major government system has a migration status indicator showing planning, testing, migration, or completed states.

Capacity Metrics tracks the cloud infrastructure capacity being deployed — compute capacity (in standardized units), storage capacity (in petabytes), and network throughput. These metrics indicate whether the National Cloud is being built at a scale commensurate with its policy ambitions.

Satellite Infrastructure

While terrestrial and submarine infrastructure receives the most attention, satellite systems play a critical role in Angola’s connectivity architecture, particularly for rural and remote areas.

AngoSat-2 is Angola’s national communications satellite, and the tracker monitors its operational status, transponder utilization, coverage footprint, and the ground infrastructure supporting its services. AngoSat-2 provides broadcasting and telecommunications capacity, and its utilization rate indicates how effectively this national asset is being commercialized.

VSAT Deployment tracks the deployment of Very Small Aperture Terminal ground stations for enterprise and community connectivity. VSAT is the primary technology for connecting locations beyond the reach of terrestrial fiber and mobile networks. The tracker monitors the number of active VSATs, their geographic distribution, and the services they support.

Infrasat Operations tracks Infrasat, the entity responsible for satellite services and VSAT operations in Angola. The tracker monitors Infrasat’s service portfolio, coverage expansion, and infrastructure investments.

Spectrum Allocation Dashboard

Radio spectrum is the invisible infrastructure enabling wireless communications, and the tracker provides a dedicated spectrum monitoring view.

Spectrum Assignment Status maps which frequency bands have been assigned to which operators, for which technology generation, and under what license terms. This visualization reveals available spectrum that could be assigned to support new services or technologies.

5G Spectrum Readiness specifically tracks the spectrum bands relevant to 5G deployment — sub-6 GHz bands for coverage and millimeter wave bands for capacity. The tracker monitors INACOM’s 5G spectrum allocation decisions, trial licenses, and commercial deployment authorizations.

Spectrum Utilization where measurable, tracks how effectively assigned spectrum is being used. Spectrum that is assigned but underutilized represents an efficiency opportunity that regulatory intervention could address.

Infrastructure Investment Tracking

The tracker integrates financial data for infrastructure projects, showing not just what is being built but how it is being funded.

Project Budgets displays the announced budgets for major infrastructure projects, broken down by funding source — government allocation, development finance, foreign direct investment, and private sector capital. Each project’s budget is tracked against reported expenditure to calculate execution rates.

Infrastructure CAPEX by Operator tracks the capital expenditure reported by telecommunications operators and infrastructure companies. This metric, drawn from financial statements and industry reports, indicates the level of private sector investment in infrastructure expansion.

Development Finance Commitments tracks commitments from the World Bank, AfDB, and other development finance institutions for infrastructure projects. The tracker distinguishes between board-approved commitments, signed loan agreements, and actual disbursements — three stages that can differ significantly in timing and amount.

Alert System

The Infrastructure Tracker generates alerts for significant changes in infrastructure status.

Cable Alerts notify of submarine cable faults, planned maintenance windows, and capacity changes that affect international connectivity. These alerts are time-sensitive and carry direct operational implications for businesses dependent on international bandwidth.

Construction Milestone Alerts notify when infrastructure projects reach significant milestones — construction start, testing completion, commercial launch — or when projects fall behind their announced timelines.

Capacity Alerts notify when infrastructure utilization approaches threshold levels — when submarine cable capacity utilization exceeds specified percentages, when data center occupancy approaches capacity, or when spectrum congestion is detected.

The Infrastructure Tracker is updated continuously as new project data, construction reports, and operational metrics become available. It serves as the definitive operational reference for the physical infrastructure that enables Angola’s digital transformation — and the physical constraints that, where they exist, limit its pace.