According to Internet Solutions (IS), the paradigm in the South African broadband market is changing, with the commercial principles behind the Seacom fibre optic undersea cable driving the shift towards a high speed, high capacity Internet connectivity environment.
“Seacom is an important milestone for the local telecommunications industry as it is the first time that South African service providers, other than Telkom, will be able to make a long-term investment in the provisioning of high speed, high capacity international connectivity,” says Hillel Shrock, Business Solutions Director at IS. “Previously ISPs had to rely on short term contracts from a single operator to supply fixed-line capacity to our customers, which often did not benefit all levels of the value chain.
“IS took an early view that Seacom was an ideal option to back, as it gives us the ability to provide our clients with an alternative connection out of South Africa, which also adds an additional level of redundancy to our aggregated connectivity service offerings,” says Shrock. “With the cable also landing in countries like Kenya and Mozambique, which are key business areas for us on the continent, the investment will also benefit our African business substantially.”
“IS is an anchor tenant with Seacom and was, in fact, the first service provider to secure substantial capacity with Seacom, after signing an indefeasible long-term contract in July 2007,” says Brian Herlihy, CEO at Seacom. “By enabling local ISPs, such as IS, to secure long-term investments in Seacom, we can work together as partners, which will empower service providers to deliver greater value and benefits to the broadband market in southern Africa.”
“The initial working relationship we have developed with Seacom over the last two years is definitely a mutually beneficial one,” continues Shrock. “Contractually and operationally the process has been smooth, with Seacom on track to deliver the cable on schedule, as promised. We will continue to work closely together once Seacom launches to ensure we can iron out any teething issues that may occur during the 'soak in' phase, so that we can rapidly move forward and deliver a high speed, high capacity, world-class service to the market,” he concludes.
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IS
Internet Solutions (IS) is southern Africa's most established and experienced Internet service provider. Since 1993, IS has been providing end-to-end connectivity solutions and related services across the African continent. IS is now also able to self-provision, having received an ECNS licence in 2008. This is enabling the company to deliver fully aggregated telecommunications services to the South African market.
The innovative solutions and services offered by IS are underpinned by the company's founding principles; developing a robust infrastructure that enables corporates and other organisations to communicate, which is then brought to life and implemented by the passionate people who work at the company. For 15 years IS has been delivering these products and services to over 80% of South Africa's top businesses, from listed companies to Non Governmental Organisations, local and national government and small to medium sized enterprises.
All IS products and services are built on a world-class, secure and resilient infrastructure, delivered according to global best practices and in partnership with the world's leading technology vendors, such as Cisco and Microsoft. IS is a Microsoft Gold Partner with competencies in Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (Hosted Exchange and SharePoint) and Advance Infrastructure (Managed Hosting) Solutions. IS is the first ISP in Africa and the Middle East to achieve this accreditation. Similarly, in 2002 IS was certified as a Cisco Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), the first company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade. IS also embraces open source technology and partners with leading local and international companies to deliver business ready Linux and open source solutions.
IS continues to enjoy market leading positions across multiple vertical market segments through the company's current product mix of Hosting, Access, Security, Virtual Private Network (VPN), Mobile, VOIS, Wireless, Broadband and Application Services solutions. Recent growth in the African economy has resulted in IS spreading its services across all parts of the continent, as clients demand reliable and robust networking connectivity throughout Africa.
IS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data and has been certified as a level 3 contributor to BEE (110% compliant). IS is a value-added supplier, enabling clients to claim 135% of their expenditure with Internet Solutions and BBBEE spend.
Seacom
Seacom, which is privately funded and over three-quarter African owned, will assist communication carriers in south and east Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks via India and Europe. The undersea fibre optic cable system will provide African retail carriers with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth, removing the international infrastructure bottleneck and supporting east and southern African economic growth.
Seacom will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa, which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections. Within Africa, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya are inter-connected via a protected ring structure. Additionally, a second express fibre pair is provided from South Africa to Kenya. These two fibre pairs have a combined capacity of 1.28Tbs. Express fibre pairs are also provided from Kenya to France into a POP in Marseilles, with 640Gbs capacity, and from Tanzania to India into the POP in Mumbai, with 640Gbs capacity. SEACOM has procured fibre capacity from Marseilles to London as part of the Seacom network.
Seacom's enormous capacity will enable high definition TV, peer-to-peer networks, IPTV, and surging Internet demand. Pricing will be significantly lower than current satellite or fibre pricing.
Seacom will be ready to serve southern and east African markets from July 2009, well in time to meet the bandwidth needs of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, and the growing requirements of the economies in the countries it will serve.
Seacom is 76.25% African owned by:
* Industrial Promotion Services (26.25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development
* Venfin Limited (25%)
* Convergence Partners (12.5%)
* Shanduka Group (12.5%)
The remaining 23.75% is held by Herakles Telecom.
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