The East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy) is confident it meets all the Department of Communications' (DOC's) criteria and will be able to land in SA, says a senior adviser.
Yesterday, Eassy announced that construction of its cable by Alcatal-Lucent had begun. This means the physical survey of the route will be conducted over the next two months, after which the actual cable will be manufactured and laid along the East African coast.
Joseph Solan, a senior advisor with the International Finance Corporation's Department of Global Information and Communications Technologies, says discussions have been held between the consortium and the DOC, "which have proved to be productive and fruitful".
In February, the DOC released its guide to landing cables, with one of the criteria being the company operating an undersea cable that lands in SA must be 51% African-owned.
Other criteria include full disclosure of the shareholders and that consultations must be held with the departments of environmental affairs and tourism and local government.
Solan says Eassy is more than 51% African-owned, as 19 of the 25 consortium members are from the continent. This includes the stakes owned by SA's Telkom, Neotel and MTN's indirect holding through its Ugandan subsidiary.
According to Solan, Alcatel-Lucent will provide a turnkey solution for building the undersea cable.
Race is on
Eassy has a long, drawn out history, having first started discussions and planning in 2000.
It was supposed to become part of the DOC-led initiative to develop a regional ICT broadband strategy. However, the two parted ways 18 months ago and now the DOC wants to develop Uhurunet - a plan that will ultimately lay a fibre-optic ring around the entire African continent.
A privately-funded initiative, Seacom, has stolen the march on Eassy and will follow a similar route. It has completed its own marine survey and says it is on track to be operational by the first quarter of 2009.
Solan says Eassy aims to be operational within the first half of 2010 and, while he would not commit to an exact date, he says: "We will definitely be working in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup."
Consistent qualities
Eassy's characteristics remain unaltered since its inception. It will stretch 10 000km from the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, around the African horn, and into the Red Sea, connecting SA, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan.
Another 13 adjoining countries will also be linked to the system as terrestrial backbone networks are completed through the broader World Bank Group initiative. These include Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Solan says the undersea cable will have an initial capacity of 30GBps with an ultimate capacity of 320GBps, and he describes this capacity as "huge".
In comparison, Seacom is expected to have total capacity of 1.2Tbps, almost four times as much.
Five major development finance institutions are partnering to provide the project's long-term loan financing of $70.7 million, with $18.2 million coming from the International Finance Corporation.
The Eassy consortium members will provide the balance of the project cost of $247.1 million.
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