The much awaited East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), which was expected to land at Mtunzini, KwaZulu Natal , South Africa, during the weekend finally landed this morning at 8.04am, Telkom South Africa Group Communication and Brand Specialist told Techmtaa in press release through email.
The landing was planned initially for Saturday but Telkom’s Pynee Chetty, said the company Alcatel-Lucent, tasked with connecting the under-sea cables with the ones outside (off-shore) failed to do so over the weekend, however the cable landed this morning. Telkom is a landing partner of the cable.
EASSy total length is 10.000 km. It’s an undersea cable system which will connect various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa to mainly Europe and Asia by 2011.
Interconnection with other undersea international cable systems will enable traffic on EASSy to seamlessly connect to Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia, thereby enhancing the east coast of Africa’s connectivity to the global telecommunications network.
It is expected that the success of EASSY will see telephone call rates and internet prices reduce drastically.
The project costs R1.74 billion (US$235) and is being financed by African Development Bank (ADB), European Investment Bank, Germany’s development bank KfW and the French development bank AFD respectively.
EASSY will link Sudan to South Africa via Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania, Madagascar,Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.The under-sea project will also have landing points in Port Sudan, Djibouti, Mogadishu (Somalia), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Toliary (Madagascar), Maputo (Mozambique), and Mtunzini in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
EASSy is routed from South Africa to Sudan, linking the coastal countries of East Africa.
“An extensive backhaul system linking landlocked countries to the coastal countries has been developed and is at various stages of completion”, stated Samuels, adding that EASSy is scheduled to be ready for commercial service by August this year.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Ile De Batz cable-laying ship in Durban harbour — (c) TechCentral
Contractors preparing the Mtunzini landing site for the arrival of the cable — (c) TechCentral
Cable in the hold of the Ile De Batz — (c) TechCentral
IMAGES: TECHCENTRAL
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