News that East Coast undersea cable Seacom will be delayed, by pirate activity, by about a month has been greeted by its anchor clients as "no big deal". They say they have contingency plans and were expecting some kind of delay.
Internet Solutions, Gateway Communications and Tenet (Tertiary Education Network) all say the delay announced yesterday by Seacom for the operational start of its cable, from 27 June to 23 July, was expected.
Rights of use
"With a project of this magnitude, it would be really surprising if it arrived bang on time. The less-than-a-month delay will not impact us at all," says Mike van den Bergh, COO of Vodacom-owned Gateway Communications.
Andrew Alston, Tenet CTO, says he is not concerned by the delay. "From our perspective, this has already been factored in. We will start testing our connections with Seacom from the day they give us the circuit."
All three clients have bought irrevocable rights of use, which means - by having spent money upfront with Seacom - they have the right to a certain amount of capacity for the life of the cable. Tenet has bought capacity of 10Gbps and Internet Solutions 3Gbps, but Gateway Communications has refused to disclose its allocated capacity.
Tenet was Seacom`s first major client and the unpublished price for the contract was put at some 50 times lower than Telkom`s rates at 2007 prices.
Jolly Roger
Yesterday`s announcement by Seacom stated the reason for the delay was due to the increase in pirate activity during April and May, in terms of intensity and geographical coverage.
The planned route required the cable-laying ship to transit an area of increased pirate activity where other ships had been attacked or seized. Pirates from Somalia have increased their attacks, with reports that some bands have been seen close to the Seychelles Islands.
"The cable deployment in the troublesome waters has since been completed and splicing to connect the section of cable from Mumbai to Africa is expected shortly. Testing of the larger cable system will be finalised shortly thereafter. The cable section from SA (Mtunzini) to Kenya (Mombasa), including all south and east African landing stations, has already undergone successful testing," the Seacom announcement says.
Meanwhile, Seacom is working with its contractor, Tyco Telecommunications, to find ways of accelerating the outstanding works and bring forward the ready for service date ahead of 23 July.
Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy says: "Due to sensitivities around piracy issues, their impact on the project timeline was only fully established recently and, while I am personally truly disappointed by the delay, it was imperative that strong measures be put in place to guarantee the successful completion of the cable system and the safety of the ship and its crew."
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