The construction of SEACOM's 15,000 km fibre optic undersea cable, linking southern and east Africa, Europe and south Asia, is on schedule and set to go live as planned in June 2009.
Some 10,000 km of cable has been manufactured to date at locations in the USA and Japan and Tyco Telecommunications (US) Inc., the project contractors, will begin shipping terrestrial equipment this month with the cable expected to be loaded on the first ship in September 2008. Laying of shore end cables for each landing stations will also proceed from September. This process will comprise the cable portions at shallow depths ranging from 15 to 50m where large vessels are not able to operate.
From October 2008, the first of three Reliance Class vessels will start laying the actual cable. The final splicing, which involves connecting all cable sections together, will happen in April 2009, allowing enough time for testing of the system before the commercial launch in June 2009.
The final steps of the Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) process are well advanced and all small archeological, marine and ecological studies, which required scuba diving analysis, have been completed, as well as social consultations with the affected parties.
The cable, including repeaters necessary to amplify the signal, will be stored in large tanks onboard the ships. The branching units necessary to divert the cable to the planned landing stations will be connected into the cable path on the ship just prior to deployment into the sea. The cable will then be buried under the ocean bed with the help of a plow along the best possible route demarcated through the marine survey.
The connectivity from Egypt to Marseille, France, will be provided through Telecom Egypt's TE-North fibre pairs that SEACOM has purchased on the system. TE-North is a new cable currently being laid across the Mediterranean Sea.
Brian Herlihy, SEACOM President, said: "We are very happy with the progress made over the past five months. Our manufacturing and deployment schedule is on target and we are confident that we will meet our delivery promises in what is today an incredibly tight market underpinned by sky-rocketing demand for new cables resulting in worldwide delivery delays.
"The recently announced executive appointments combined with the project management capabilities already existent within SEACOM position us as a fully fledged telecoms player. We are able to meet the African market's urgent requirements for cheap and readily available bandwidth within less than a year."
The cable will go into service long before the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks-off in South Africa and SEACOM has already been working with key broadcasters to meet their broadband requirements. The team is also trying to expedite the construction in an attempt to assist with the broadcasting requirements of the FIFA Confederations Cup scheduled for June 2009.
SEACOM, which is privately funded and over three quarter African owned, will assist communication carriers in south and east Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks via India and Europe. The undersea fibre optic cable system will provide African retail carriers with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth, removing the international infrastructure bottleneck and supporting east and southern African economic growth. SEACOM will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About SEACOM
SEACOM provides high capacity bandwidth linking businesses, individuals, and communities in southern and east Africa, Europe and south Asia. When it is fully functional in 2009, SEACOM will be a service provider of international fibre optic bandwidth along the east coast of Africa linking South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe.
SEACOM's two fibre pairs will have an enormous capacity of 1.28TB/s, to enable high definition TV, peer to peer networks, IPTV, and surging Internet demand. Pricing will be significantly lower than current satellite or fibre pricing.
SEACOM will be ready to serve southern and east African markets from 2009, well in time to meet the bandwidth needs of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, and the growing requirements of the economies in the countries it will serve.
SEACOM has been structured to meet the policy objectives of Governments and NEPAD. SEACOM will be first to launch services with a planned Ready for Service date of June 2009.
SEACOM is 76.25% African owned by:
- Industrial Promotion Services (26.25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development
- Venfin Limited (25%)
- Convergence Partners (12.5%)
- Shanduka Group (12.5%)
The remaining 23.75% is held by Herakles Telecom LLC.
About Industrial Promotion Services
IPS is the infrastructure and industrial development of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). IPS has operations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and DR Congo and is also actively pursuing investment opportunities in Rwanda, Mozambique and Madagascar. Outside the East and Central Africa region, IPS also operates in Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Canada.
AKFED is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. AKFED focuses on building enterprises in parts of the world that lack sufficient foreign direct investment. It also makes bold but calculated investments in situations that are fragile and complex.
AKFED operates as a network of affiliates with more than 90 separate project companies employing over 30,000 people. The Fund is active in 16 countries in the developing world: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Further details on IPS and AKFED may be obtained from the website www.akdn.org
About VenFin Limited
VenFin is an active private equity and venture capital investor focusing on high growth investment opportunities. The company has assets in excess $1.1 billion spanning the telecommunications, software, energy and media sectors. The company also has selected fund and direct investments in China.
Prior to 1 January 2006, VenFin was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with its largest investment being a 15% stake in Vodacom (Pty) Ltd, South Africa's largest mobile network operator.
VenFin was a founding shareholder in Vodacom. The group subsequently disposed of the Vodacom investment to Vodafone Plc, and delisted from the JSE. More recently, VenFin disposed of its 25% stake in Alexander Forbes, a leading insurance broker and financial services company, for just under $300 million. The company is actively making new investments across a number of sectors, including media, technology and renewable and alternate energy sectors.
VenFin is part of a family of companies, JSE listed Remgro Limited www.remgro.co.za and Swiss based Richemont www.richemont.com .
About Herakles Telecom
Herakles Telecom is an international development group based in New York City. The management of Herakles Telecom has decades of experience in the development of international infrastructure, including more than $4 billion dollars of infrastructure investment in Africa. The Herakles Telecom experience includes a full spectrum of development expertise including project development, project finance, technical expertise and project controls.
About Convergence Partners
Convergence Partners is a South African based investment company focused on the telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) sector, predominantly in Africa and the Middle East.
Convergence Partners' investment philosophy is to take meaningful equity stakes in quality projects and businesses within its chosen sector and act as an active, strategic valueadding investor.
As a major part of its strategy, Convergence Partners focuses on greenfields projects that improve access to communications, broadband services and technology offerings throughout Africa and thereby contribute to enhanced standards of living.
About Shanduka Group
Shanduka Group is a leading African investment company that adds value to its investments and makes a difference. The company's main investment activities are in Resources, Financial Services, Property, Energy and Industrial & General.
As a black owned and managed company operating in a transforming South Africa, Shanduka is proud to be doing business and contributing to the transformation of the economy and society during a period of great and positive change on the African continent.
Shanduka Group's investment philosophy is to partner with companies in which we can play a meaningful role in maximizing growth and profitability.
The company's Corporate Social Investment activities are conducted through the Shanduka Foundation, a vehicle for transformation and empowerment dedicated to the education and development of business skills amongst the previously disadvantaged community.
