Alca-Lu wins TEAMS cable contract

Alcatel-Lucent has won a USD79 million turnkey contract to deploy a 4,900km undersea cable between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. The East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) consortium, which includes the Kenyan government and Etisalat of the UAE, plans to link Mombasa in Kenya with the port of Fujairah in the UAE. The 640Gbps cable is expected to go live by the end of the first quarter of 2009. The Kenyan government says the cable will help lower the cost of internet access and international telephony services in Kenya.