The South Atlantic Telecommunications cable no.3 (SAT-3) is a 13000km submarine cable connecting South Africa, West Africa, to Europe. The SAT-3 cable system has a toltal capacity of 120Gbps, ready for service in 2001.

The earlier SAT-2 had been brought into service in the early 1990s and SAT-1 was constructed in the 1960s.

The SAT-3 is also known as the West African Submarine Cable (WASC), commonly called SAT-3/WASC. The SAT-3/WASC interconnects with the SAFE cable system at the Melkbosstrand cable landing station in South Africa, forming a cable link commonly known as SAT-3/WASC/SAFE.

The SAT-3/WASC and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) are most important international subsea cables in West Coast of Africa. The WACS lands at the Yzerfontein CLS in Western Cape Town, the SAT-3/WASC lands at the Melkbosstrand CLS in Western Cape Town, South Africa, forming alternative gateways to South Africa.

The SAT-3/WASC consortium comprises 36 telecom operators. The largest three investors in SAT-3/WASC were (in order) TCI, a subsidiary of AT&T (U.S.A.); France Telecom (France); and VSNL (India, Singapore). The 11 African shareholders are (in alphabetical order): Angola Telecom, Camtel, Cote d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, Maroc Telecom, Nitel, OPT Benin, OPT Gabon, Sonatel, Telecom Namibia and Telkom SA Ltd. There are also Asian shareholders.

Although Telecom Namibia holds ownership in SAT-3/WASC, Namibia has no landing point.

The SAT3 / WASC lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Chipiona, Spain
• Altavista, Gran Canaria, Spain
• Sesimbra, Portugal
• Dakar, Senegal
• Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
• Accra, Ghana
• Cotonou, Benin
• Lagos, Nigeria
• Douala, Cameroon
• Libreville, Gabon
• Cacuaco, Angola
• Melkbosstrand, South Africa