South Africa - reductions in the prices of international leased lines

[itweb] Investment in undersea cables has dramatically decreased the cost per gigabit of international capacity coming into SA, says Telkom.

“In essence, statistical trends clearly show that, while capital investment and overall cable capacity have been significantly enhanced over the recent years, the costs per gig capacity over the concomitant period have drastically dropped,” says Alphonzo Samuels, Telkom's managing executive for wholesale services.

The company says Telkom's own cable system, SAT-3/WACS/SAFE, has seen a price decrease of 90% since 2002. While the company has not indicated actual costs, prices are coming down because of upgrades to technology and increased investment in the other cables.

Samuels says Telkom's undersea capacity has just been upgraded, specifically for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. “For example, by the end of 2009, the SAT-3 and SAFE upgrades to at least three times their current capacity will be concluded,” he says.

By the end of this year, SAT-3 will be upgraded to 340Gbps and SAFE will be upgraded to 440Gbps.

There will be at least nine undersea cables connecting Sub-Saharan Africa to the rest of the world, by the end of 2011.

Samuels says SAT-3 provided the shortest route to Europe, while SAFE was the shortest link to Asia. “Furthermore, S3WS not only offers fully diverse solutions out of SA, but also has adequate spare capacity to fully cater for 2010. From an undersea capacity perspective, therefore, it's all systems go for the World Cup next year,” emphasised Samuels.

'International capacity is cheaper' Telkom is close to completing its SAT-3/SAFE upgrades