The truth behind Seacom delay
Seacom recently announced that it has delayed its ‘ready for service’ date. Here are the facts.
Seacom informed stakeholders that it has delayed its ‘ready for service date’ from 27 June 2009 to 23 July 2009. The company cited the increase in pirate activity during April and May 2009 – both in terms of intensity and geographical coverage – as the reason for this delay.
“The planned route required the ship to transit an area of increased pirate activity where other ships had been attacked or seized,” Seacom said in an official press release. “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.“
Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy said that due to sensitivities around piracy issues, their impact on the project timeline was only fully established recently. “I am personally truly disappointed by the delay, but 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,” said Herlihy.
May was specifically a busy month for pirates in the Somali region, and this in turn caused Seacom cable laying delays. The cable laying contractor policies however prohibited Seacom from making any announcements while the ship is in the area of the pirates, which means that the recently announced delay is really a consequence of earlier problems.
While specific details about the delay remains sketchy, one industry expert said that the time consuming task of arranging extra security ships to facilitate the cable construction in dangerous waters, and getting these ships cleared, is one of the biggest reasons for the delay.
The cable construction and landing are finished and Seacom testing has started in full force. According to the Seacom website the cable will be ready in 23 days.
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