Tata Communications has joined an international consortium to build a $600 million West African cable system, which will link countries in southern and western Africa with Europe. Otherconsortium partners include Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Telecom Namibia, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom. The 14,000 km cable is expected to be ready for service by 2011. AlcatelLucent Submarine Networks has secured the contract to supply the system with all associated landing points.