Seacom's Cable Reaches Two Ocean Floors on its way to Africa

Seacom has announced that the first portions of deepwater cable are now resting on the seabed of the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The cable has been laid from the edge of the South African waters to Mozambique and cable laying is also proceeding in the Red Sea from Egypt towards the coast of Yemen. A third ship is currently being loaded with the remainder of Seacom's deepwater cable which will be deployed from India towards Africa, where these three cable segments will be joined.

In parallel to the marine installation, Seacom has made significant strides in land-based construction. The high-performance optical transmission equipment, which connects customers to inland terrestrial networks, has been installed in the Maputo, Mumbai and Djibouti cable landing stations. Construction of the cable station in Kenya will be complete in early February followed shortly by the Tanzanian and South African stations. Equipment installation in these locations, and in Egypt, will be complete in April. 

Seacom has also been preparing to provide services to customers by June and recruited over ten experienced local telecommunications professionals from India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania to operate and maintain the cable stations. Many of these personnel have already been trained at the Seacom Network Operations Centre in India and are now participating in the testing of the system as it is being installed. A complementary set of personnel is being recruited and will start training in March. These teams will also work with the landing partners' operators in Egypt and Djibouti. SEACOM is pleased to have been able to tap into the huge resource of talented young African telecommunication professionals, who are now ready to provide customers with the required support from June onwards.