Undersea cables: EASSy submarine project for completion June 2009 from Port Sudan to Mtunzini

[East African Business Week] The East African Submarine Cable (EASSy) construction will be complete this June.

Noel Herrity, the CEO of Zantel said: "The EASSy Project remains on track for completion at the end of June, and the resulting upgrade to telecoms infrastructure in East Africa will bring a welcome boost to the development of our economy and empowerment of the region."

The Management Committee of the East African Submarine Cable recently held a meeting in Moroni in the Comoros to review the progress of the construction of EASSy, the undersea cable system that links all Eastern Africa countries to the world-wide undersea fibre-optic networks.

The committee noted with satisfaction that the marine survey work that commenced on December 9, 2008 has been fully completed. All the permits at the landing stations have been obtained. Cable manufacture started in February and is well underway with 40% completion.

The committee further noted that the terminal stations equipment and repeaters manufacture is ongoing very well. The nine cable landing stations, namely, Port Sudan; Djibouti; Mogadishu; Mombasa; Dar es Salaam; Moroni (in Comoros); Toliary (in Madagascar), Maputo and Mtunzini (in South Africa), are either ready or in final stages of construction.

The Management Committee was upbeat to report that, thanks to the diligence of Alcatel Lucent, the contractor and leader in this industry, EASSy shall meet the ready-for-service date of June 30, as originally planned. EASSy is a consortium of 27 operators building an open access international fibre-optic submarine cable, comprising Botswana Telecommunications Corporation; Bharti; BT; Comoros Telecom; Etisalat; Neotel South Africa; France Telecom; Mauritius Telecom; MTN International; Saudi Telecom; and Sudan Telecom.

Others are: Telecom Malagasy; TTCL Tanzania; Telkom South Africa; Vodacom; Zantel; and WIOCC, a joint venture comprising Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Gilat Satcom Nigeria, Lesotho C.A., Onatel Burundi, Telecomunicaçoes de Mozambique, Telkom Kenya, UCOM Burundi, Uganda Telecom and Zanzibar Telecom.

EASSy Submarine Project for Completion This June