SEACOM and Tyco Telecommunications begin African undersea cable construction
DECEMBER 12, 2007 -- SEACOM, Ltd. and its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications (search for Tyco Telecommunications), say they have begun construction of the 13,700-km SEA Cable System connecting the South and East Africa countries of South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya, and Tanzania with India and Egypt. The SEA Cable System will have 1.28 Tbits/sec of capacity and is expected to be completed by June 2009. SEACOM attained full and unconditional financial close on November 9, 2007. SEACOM and Tyco Telecommunications brought the construction contract for the full delivery of the system in force on November 13, 2007.
SEACOM's offerings will complement communication carriers of South and East Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks eastward through India and westward through Europe. The system is designed to provide African retail carriers with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth, removing the international infrastructure bottleneck and supporting East and South African economic growth. The SEA Cable System will have many times the capacity of the sole existing cable in the region, say SEACOM and Tyco, enabling greater availability and lower cost for high-demand services such as high definition TV, peer to peer networks, IPTV, and Internet.
"The overwhelming demand for increased bandwidth in East and South Africa grows greater each day," explains Brian Herlihy, president, SEACOM, Ltd. "The SEA Cable System is making massive new bandwidth available, enabling prices to come down dramatically and opening up the possibility of developing new fields of economic activity in all the countries served. The SEA Cable System will be ready to serve Southern and East African markets from 2009, well in time to meet the bandwidth needs of the Confederations Cup and the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, and the growing requirements of the economies in the countries it serves."
"The launch of construction of the SEA Cable System marks a significant moment for our industry as we begin the first major submarine cable infrastructure system to link East and South Africa with India, the Middle East, and Europe," said Michael Rieger, vice president, sales, marketing, and project management, Tyco Telecommunications. "We are confident that our contributions to the design and implementation of this system will bring significant advancements to the service and technology capabilities available to citizens and businesses throughout the region."
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