Venture capital cable company Seacom is ready to start laying its 15 000km 1.28Tbps cable along the African East Coast from next month. It is confident it will meet its self-imposed "go live" deadline of June next year.
Seacom president Brian Herlihy says the cable will go into service long before the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks-off. His team is trying to expedite construction in an attempt to assist with the broadcasting requirements of the FIFA Confederations Cup, scheduled for mid-June 2009.
"We are very happy with the progress made over the past five months," Herlihy says.
"Our manufacturing and deployment schedule is on target and we are confident that we will meet our delivery promises in what is today an incredibly tight market..."
Herlihy adds that 10 000km of cable has been manufactured to date, at locations in the US and Japan. Tyco Communications, the project contractor, will begin shipping terrestrial equipment this month, with the cable expected to be loaded on the first ship in September, he notes.
Laying of shore-end cables for each landing station will also proceed from next month.
"This process will comprise the cable portions at shallow depths ranging from 15m to 50m, where large vessels are not able to operate," Seacom says.
The first of three Reliance-class cable layers will start laying the actual cable in deep water from October.
Making connections
The final splicing, which involves connecting all cable sections together, will happen in April next year, allowing enough time for testing of the system before the commercial launch in June 2009.
The final steps of the environmental social impact assessment process are well advanced. All small archaeological, marine and ecological studies, which required scuba diving analysis, have been completed, as well as social consultations with the affected parties.
The cable, including repeaters necessary to amplify the signal, will be stored in large tanks onboard the ships. The branching units necessary to divert the cable to the planned landing stations will be connected into the cable path on the ship just prior to deployment into the sea, the Seacom announcement adds.
The cable will then be buried under the ocean bed with the help of a plough, along the best possible route demarcated through marine surveys.
The Seacom cable will connect SA, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe. Connectivity from Egypt to Marseille, France, will be provided through Telecom Egypt's TE-North cable currently being laid across the Mediterranean Sea.
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