Nairobi — Increased pirate activity has caused a change in Seacom's fibre optic cable's due installation date. The cable, initially planned to debut this weekend, will now have to wait for another month till July 23.

In a statement to newsrooms on Wednesday, Seaom chief executive Brian Herlihy said the planned route required the ship to transit an area of increased pirate activity where ships had been attacked or seized.

"Due to sensitivities around piracy issues, their impact on the project timeline was only fully established recently and whilst I am personally truly disappointed by the delay, it was imperative that strong measures be put in place to guarantee the successful completion of the cable system and the safety of the ship and its crews," he said.

Threatened

However, the cable deployment in the troublesome waters has since been completed and splicing to connect the section of cable from Mumbai to Africa is expected shortly.

Testing of the larger cable system will be finalised shortly thereafter according to Mr Herlihy. Two weeks ago, President Kibaki launched the government-sponsored TEAMS project which is expected to go live in three months.