Seacom switch-on hailed by industry
THE telecommunications industry has greeted the switching on of Seacom with delight, hoping the fibreoptic cable will quickly deliver cheaper prices and faster bandwidth for all.
The 600m, 17000km cable linking SA and several east African countries to India and Europe will provide bandwidth at speeds of 1,28 Terabits per second. In layman’s terms, the average home internet user downloads 1GB of data a month, while Seacom can download 160GB every second.
CEO Brian Herlihy said its launch created unprecedented opportunity at a fraction of current costs, as governments, businesses and citizens could use its bandwidth to compete globally, drive economic growth and enhance quality of life. “We are proud to be the first to provide affordable, high- quality broadband capacity and experience to east African economies,” he said.
For once the industry agrees. Comments on the mybroadband website, an industry forum , included hopes for faster, cheaper access. “SA must leave the Dark Ages now,” said one. “Let’s hope a steady downturn in prices begins.”
Gartner analyst Will Hahn said Seacom’s huge bandwidth would facilitate the offer of new services previously unaffordable or not even feasible. Some schoolchildren in the US watched YouTube videos to explore subjects as casually as others read books, he said.
It was now up to entrepreneurs, providers and consumers to show the desire to use the opportunity afforded, Hahn said.
The Seacom team expects consumers to enjoy cheaper internet access almost immediately as more capacity becomes available at much lower prices.
Until now most international voice and data traffic has been carried on the Sat3 cable on Africa’s west coast. But that is controlled by a cabal of operators including Telkom , which kept the access fees exorbitantly high. Originally, Herlihy expected to slash SA’s bandwidth fees 80%, but the mere threat of its arrival prompted Telkom to drop its fees up to 90% ahead of the fierce competition. Other operators and internet service providers (ISPs) have not passed all savings on to consumers.
“Everybody has to track their prices down now or they won’t stay in the market,” said Angus Hay, chief technology officer of Neotel, which operates the landing station on behalf of Seacom and delivers its capacity across SA via its terrestrial networks. “Telkom will have no choice or it won’t stay in business.”
Some ISPs buying Seacom’s capacity had cut their prices so the benefits were already filtering down to end users, Hay said. Internet Solutions and Gateway are among its clients, and the cellular operators are also buying capacity.
Seacom was vital as SA was running out of international bandwidth as businesses and consumers used the internet more, Hay said.
RSA Web MD Rob Gilmour said Seacom was incredibly exciting for SA’s internet landscape as consumers and business would be able to afford more access. “We live in a globally connected marketplace, where location is less important if you have affordable broadband and can communicate with the rest of the world. This allows us to compete globally like never before,” he said.
SEACOM switch-on discussion
Business Day
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