EASSy finally forging ahead
Members that make up the private sector consortium that originated the idea of completing a submarine cable loop around Africa's eastern seaboard have entered interconnection agreements with three cable systems to connect EASSy to the rest of the world.
Recently, the management team of the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) met in Kampala to review and harmonise agreements that were signed in the formative stages of developing this major ICT infrastructure.
The three-day meeting also saw the inclusion of the Indian Ocean islands of the Comoros in its planned fibre network. Members also finalised legal paperwork for the interconnection deals.
Mr. John Sihra, the coordinator of EASSy and a director with Tanzania operator ZANTEL, said the interconnection agreements would enable EASSy links with similar gateways to Europe and Asia.
The cables are SAFE/SAT3, SEA ME-WE and FLAG. The SAT3/WASC cable runs from Portugal, through Spain, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola to South Africa.
SAFE begins from South Africa, to La Reunion, Mauritius, on to India and Malaysia. FLAG covers the Indian sub-continent and is extending to the Middle East and North Africa, while SEA ME-WE runs in the Middle East and North Africa.
The operators said the interconnection agreements they had concluded with other cables would enable EASSy to offer the public and other operators services from the point of origin of a call to any part of the world.
"International carriers like BT, France Telecom, and Sauditel are part of EASSy and we will have multiple choices for accessing the international system, which will also make us competitive," Sihra said.
EASSy is expected to provide connectivity across Africa to support the increase in local traffic from both traditional and new broadband services.
Sihra, flanked by MTN Uganda's Noel Meier and Uganda telecom's Donald Nyakairu clarified reports that the project costs had gone up to US$400 million saying, "our project cost is still at US$235 million."
The financing for the project according to Sihra is already in place, with players like MTN and Vodacom having contributed money directly, while others are contributing through the West Indian Ocean Communications Company (WIOCC), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which has been created as the holding company for EASSy.
Apart from the direct funds, other funds are coming in terms of loans with a total of about $170 million having been made available by different financing agencies.
"But we don't need a loan because we are fully subscribed," Sihra said. Recently, the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) committed $40 million to the development of the cable system.
Sihra said the project will be delivered on time, which is the fourth quarter of 2008. WIOCC has also been created to ensure capacity is available and is accessible to everyone with no barrier to access.
Already, a detailed feasibility study has been concluded, so has an environment impact assessment – which the operators said found the cable would not negatively impact on the marine ecosystem.
A marine survey is due to start, to map the cable route, and ascertain whether the findings of earlier studies are accurate regarding best routes and length of the fibre system.
Completion of the marine study within the next six months will give way to the actual laying of the cable by Alcatel Lucent Submarine Networks of France with whom a contract was signed on March 9, 2007.
Nyakairu, who is also chair of the East African Backhaul System (EABS) and corporation secretary of Uganda telecom, said by the time EASSy is completed, there will be a fibre system running from Mombasa, through Nairobi, the Uganda-Kenya border town of Malaba and all the way to Uganda's capital Kampala.
The network will extend from Kampala through the Uganda-Rwanda border town of Katuna, to Kigali (Rwanda), through to Bujumbura (Burundi). From Bujumbura, the link will extend through Tanzania back to the coast.
Telkom Kenya is expected to complete the extension of a fibre optic link to Malaba from where Ugandan operators will pick it up.
MTN currently has fibre from Kampala to the town of Bugiri not far from Malaba; while Uganda Telecom leases Uganda Electricity Transmission Company capacity that carries fibre to Tororo town, also near the border.
On the western side, MTN has fibre to the Ugandan town of Mbarara, and Uganda Telecom is due to build fibre from there to the Rwandan border where it will link to the fibre that MTN Rwandacell is set to build from Katuna to Kigali.
Within Uganda, the EABS will be hooked to a national fibre backbone being built by the government with Chinese funding of up to $110m.
Operators in Burundi will link with the network and take it up to the Tanzania border, from where operators including ZANTEL will develop it to link to an existing fibre network that goes back to Dar es Salaam.
The EASSy submarine network is to span almost 10,000km, linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique.
The network will reportedly deliver a regional capacity of 320Gb/s, enabling governments, public administrations and businesses to use advanced technology to support new applications.
The EASSy consortium seems to have pulled away and gained the initiative in the race to build a submarine cable on the eastern coast of Africa, given that a lot of entities are interested in the same.
The New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) is one such entity. The Nepad e-Africa commission was initially interested in EASSy but has since pulled out and there are plans underway to build a similar submarine cable.
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