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Johannesburg - The East African Submarine Cable (Eassy) - which will run along the east coast of Africa from South Africa to Sudan - will begin installation operations soon.
The cable is scheduled for completion in June 2010. Eassy will be the next undersea cable to be rolled out after Seacom was completed earlier in 2009.
Eassy represents an international consortium of 27 operators that have invested in the project, including South African firms Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Neotel.
Said Angus Hay, executive head of technology at Neotel: "Our participation in the international cable forms a critical part of our strategy to provide South Africans with access to true broadband, and to ultimately connect them to the rest of the world."
Telkom was the sole provider of international bandwidth via undersea cables until the 1.3Tbps Seacom cable landed in July. Telkom, while invested in Eassy, is not participating in Seacom.
Telkom recently upgraded the capacity of its SAT3 and SAFE cable system. It has criticised cables such as Seacom for not having failover capability should faults occur.
Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy agreed that failover was a challenge for Seacom. However, since the cable is buried beneath the ocean floor, unlike Telkom cables, it is less vulnerable to damage.
"Cable systems typically work together," said Herlihy. "For example, we're talking to Teams [the East African Marine System cable] in Kenya."
Herlihy said telecoms providers who purchase bandwidth on undersea cables generally have partnerships with more than one data provider, creating their own failover capability.
Seacom is exhibiting on Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg this week, where the company said its Broadband Experience is showing South Africans what real broadband is like. It allows visitors to watch videos, play games and access other services via a dedicated broadband internet connection.
Andile Ngcaba, former director general of the department of communications and present chairperson of telecommunications group Convergence Partners, spoke at the launch of the event, saying Africa needs to be connected to share itself with the world.
"Seacom will satisfy some of the need, but more is required," he said. "People around the world are looking forward to seeing African content on the internet."
He said it is hard to understand the enormity of the economic and social effect broadband will have on South Africa, as the country has not had a taste of it so far.
- Fin24.com