Neotel will need own landing station

Neotel will have to build a new landing station at Mtunzini, as the Telkom facility can only cater for the SA Far East cable and the future Eassy cable landing, says a senior Telkom source.

Yesterday, Neotel, the country`s official second national operator, announced it would spend $20 million (R134.8 million) to build the landing station and the portion of the cable that is in South African territorial waters.

Neotel`s announcement came in the wake of Seacom announcing the finalisation of its $650 million (R4.31 billion) financing structure to lay a 1.28Tb African East Coast cable. The cable will stretch from the KwaZulu-Natal north coast to eventually terminate in Europe.

"They are unlikely to use the Mtunzini station as it was built specifically to land the SA Far East cable (SAFE) and Eassy (East African Submarine Cable System) cable. So they would have to build their own facility there. Telkom has no exclusive right to use the town of Mtunzini as a landing place," the source says.

He adds that Telkom was always under the impression that Seacom and Neotel would build their own landing station.

Earlier this year, in her budget vote speech, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said she would direct the Independent Communications Authority of SA to declare the electronic communications facilities connected to submarine cables and satellite earth stations as "essential facilities".

This includes sites for the equipment in landing stations, namely Mtunzini, and the one on the West Coast, at Melkbostrand.

This appeared in the Government Gazette in September; however, the communications regulator still has to draw up the final list.

"The way I understand it, an 'essential facility` means that anyone who is allowed to use such a facility (such as the equipment required to access a submarine cable) will do so at a regulated cost," the Telkom source says.

He notes that locating different operators` landing stations within close proximity is normal international practice. It shortens the land connection, which is considered more vulnerable to damage than the sea portion of the cable, for onward transmission.

The source also points out that the last kilometre of landing an undersea cable is the most expensive, as the cable has to be armoured for the hazards of shallow water that can include rocks, boating activity and fishing.

Neotel said in a statement it would invest R20 million towards a cable landing station and all facilities within the South African territory. It added that it would operate the facilities on an open access basis, in a bid to stimulate the country`s international bandwidth market.

"Neotel remains committed to a new era in the telecoms industry of SA where access to international bandwidth will not be as constrained." says Neotel MD Ajay Pandey.