Alcatel-Lucent has been contracted by the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) consortium to lay the region’s first international undersea cable link. The EASSy project will span nearly 10,000km and will initially link eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique. There will also be links to other major submarine systems, to provide an important international gateway. With completion scheduled by the end of 2008, the EASSy submarine network will deliver a regional capacity of 320Gbps, allowing consumers to benefit from more accessible and affordable broadband internet services.
‘This project represents a milestone in the development of the African communication infrastructure, where there is a strong need for optical connectivity,’ said Sammy Kirui, chairman of the EASSy Project Management Committee and managing director of Telkom Kenya.