Reuters reports that The East African Marine System (TEAMS) submarine fibre-optic cable has entered construction, with cable laying from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to Mombasa in Kenya likely to take two months. Kenyan government officials noted that the 5,000km route of the USD130 million cable has been altered to reduce the threat from pirates in the Indian Ocean, and foreign navies have agreed to protect the cable laying vessel.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the Kenyan government, Telkom Kenya and Safaricom each hold 20% in the TEAMS project, while Kenya Data Networks and Econet Wireless have 10% each. Other investors include Wananchi Online (5%) and Jamii Telkom (3.75%). Alcatel-Lucent won the contract to deploy the TEAMS cable in October 2007.