Africa broadens superhighway
2009-07-23 14:22
Cape Town - The African continent has caught up with the rest of the world's information superhighway with the launch of the long-awaited Seacom cable.
Seacom, partnering with network equipment manufacturer Cisco Systems, has unveiled its undersea fibre optic network on Thursday with simultaneous demonstrations in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa.
"Seacom is turning on the switch for you to enjoy true broadband!" the companies said in a joint statement.
Media and stakeholders attending the launch were provided direct access to true broadband connectivity, and entertained with live broadcasts and interactive real-time presentations across the system.
The 1.28 Terabits per second, 17 000 kilometres, submarine fibre optic cable system links south and east Africa to global networks via India and Europe.
Seacom will effectively link Cape Town and Johannesburg with London using Neotel as a partner.
Neotel will have a Johannesburg PoP and Cape Town PoP which are connected to the Mtunzini cable station where the Seacom cable landed in late May.
'Historic day for Africa'
The launch of Seacom, which is privately funded and over three quarter African owned, opens up unprecedented opportunities, at a fraction of the current cost, as government, business leaders and citizens can now use the network as the platform to compete globally, drive economic growth and enhance the quality of life across the continent.
"Today is a historic day for Africa and marks the dawn of a new era for
communications between the continent and the rest of the world," Brian Herlihy, Seacom CEO, commented on the finalisation of the project.
"Our tireless efforts of the past 24 months have come to fruition, and we are proud to be the first to provide affordable, high quality broadband capacity and experience to east African economies. Turning the switch 'on' creates a huge anticipation but ultimately, Seacom will be judged on the changes that take place on the continent over the coming years."
Yvon le Roux, Cisco Vice President for Africa, added: "Cisco and Seacom share a common goal to enable accessible broadband across Africa while lowering the cost of communication to spur growth within urban and rural communities.
Says Seacom's Chairperson, Nizar Juma: "The Seacom cable will change the lives of every man, woman and child in the countries connected by making previously unavailable technology accessible to everyone."
Seacom 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.
The undersea cable system will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections.
2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup
The network'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.
While Seacom will be the first cable connected to eastern Africa, it will soon be joined by two further cables. The East African Marine System (Teams), scheduled for completion later in 2009, will link Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, and the Eastern African Submarine Cable System (Eassy), which lands in many of the same countries as Seacom, is expected to commence service in mid-2010.
The western coast of Africa, which is currently served only by the Sat-3 cable, is experiencing a similar investment boom: four new cable projects are currently planned.
The long-awaited Glo-1 cable is expected to link Nigeria and Ghana to Europe later this year. The privately-funded Main One cable will link Nigeria and Ghana to Portugal in May 2010, and the $600m West Africa Cable System (Wacs) consortium cable is due to be completed in 2011.
Finally, France Telecom is leading the Africa Coast to Europe (Ace) project, which will link 25 countries in Europe and West Africa by 2011.