Private undersea cable operator Seacom has awarded Tyco Electronics the contract to build a 13 000km cable that will connect the eastern African seaboard to the global telecommunications network.
Seacom is the only cable system nearing construction, while the rival East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy) consortium still has to finalise its funding arrangements to raise the estimated $230 million it needs to lay its own cable.
East Africa is the last major geographical region not connected to the world undersea telecommunications grid, and a number of projects have been proposed to close the gap.
These include the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network, under the auspices of the e-Africa Commission of the African Union and the Regional Communications Infrastructure Network being championed by the World Bank.
The Seacom cable will have an initial operating capacity of 1 280 gigs and stretch from SA to Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India, the Middle East and Europe. The Eassy cable, with a planned initial capacity of 340 gigs, is planned to follow a similar route, but will terminate in Sudan.
Significant capacity
"East and South African demand, combined with Indian user demand for international bandwidth, has greatly surpassed the existing supply," says Brian Herlihy, Seacom president
"Seacom will provide significant capacity at affordable prices through an extensive network solution, which stretches the entire length of East Africa to the Middle East, plus western India and westward to Europe."
Seacom first publicly announced its intention in June, when it said it had chartered a ship from Tyco Electronics, the parent of Tyco Telecommunications, to survey the route.
A Seacom spokesman says construction of the cable is due to begin in September, once the marine survey is complete, and that commercial services will be launched during the first half of 2009.
Seacom is backed by The Blackstone Group, the world's largest private equity company, and it also has the backing of some African telecommunications operators, however, the spokesman refuses to say who they are.
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