More international bandwidth promised

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Infraco’s African West Coast Cable (AWCC) project, which is aiming to connect South Africa to the UK, is expected to be operational by the middle of 2010, in time for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.

This is according to a statement from the South African government, saying that it is aiming to create a "sustainable, competitive international bandwidth market in South Africa".

"The decision is in line with the president's statement in this year's state of the nation address to complete the licensing and the operationalisation of Infraco as well as the completion of the process to launch undersea cables in partnership with other governments on the continent and the private sector,” the GCIS statement says.

Fin24 reports that this announcement follows a meeting between the presidency, minister of public enterprises, Alec Erwin, and the minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

In March the department of public enterprises announced that Broadband Infraco is expected to hold only a 26% stake in the submarine cable and its capacity, leaving 74% of the total capacity in private sector hands. Infraco’s 26% stake is already fully funded from sources other than the national fiscus.

The 3.8 terabit cable will run from either Melkbosstrand (the existing SAT-3 landing station) or from a new landing site adjacent to Koeberg in the Western Cape. The cable will run up along the west coast of Africa to the United Kingdom.

The system makes provision for about 12 landing stations along the African west coast, which will be built at a later stage.

Infraco discussion