SEACOM has delayed its switching-on date by a month, after threats by Somali pirates along the Indian Ocean route from India disrupted the cable installation plans.
SEACOM was expected to light up at a fancy hyped party in the coastal city of Mombasa on June 27, but the party has been pushed to July 23. Increased pirate activity in April and May, in terms of intensity and geographical coverage, necessitated changes in cable installation plans.
"The planned route required the ship to transit an area of increased pirate activity where other ships had been attacked or seized," said Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO. "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 crews."
The Somali pirates have terrorized ships along the Gulf of Aden and have out-muscled a combination of naval ships from NATO countries and the Kenyan navy, a weaker contingent compared to western forces.
The ship laying the cable from South Africa (Mtunzini landing station) to Kenya (Mombasa) docked at the port two months ago, and the cable has already undergone testing. SEACOM, which is hoping to be the first provider of fiber-optic connectivity in East Africa, pegged the lighting-up date as June 27, hoping to navigate the chaotic Somali waters in two months and test the whole cable system.
“This setback should, however, be seen against the herculean efforts made by the team to see this project come to fruition over an incredibly tight schedule of only 18 months. We remain extremely excited and look forward to witnessing the huge difference that affordable, high-quality and plentiful bandwidth will have throughout eastern and southern Africa," Herlihy said.
In the meantime, SEACOM is working with its contractor, Tyco Telecommunications, to find ways to accelerate the work that remains to be done and push up the service date to before July 23.
The East Africa Marine System ship laying cable from Fujaira in the Middle East to Mombasa docked two weeks ago, and the cable owners promised to fully deploy and test the cable and offer services by September.
While TEAMS is owned by a public-private partnership, SEACOM is privately funded and over three-quarters African-owned. The two cables are competing in their launch dates and provision to African retail carriers for equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth, removing the international infrastructure bottleneck and supporting east and southern African economic growth.
SEACOM’s two fiber pairs will have capacity of 1.28TB/s, to enable high-definition TV, peer-to-peer networks, IPTV and surging Internet demand. Pricing will be significantly lower than current satellite.
Source: idg.no
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