EASSy, the undersea cable network that will cheapen the cost of internet, came to commercial use last Friday, the company’s management said.
“We are confident that this is the most reliable system serving the African continent,” Jacques van der Walt, Chairman of the Procurement Group responsible for technical aspects of EASSy, said in a statement on the company’s website.
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is one of the African telecommunication companies across the continent that has invested in the project.
The South African Mail and Guardian newspaper reported that the 10 000km cable lands in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comores, Tanzania, Kenya, Somaliland, Djibouti and Sudan and connects with multiple Asian and European cables in Djibouti and Sudan.
More than 25 telecommunications operators mainly from Africa, along with a number of global operators who invested in EASSy, have commenced customer service on the cable
Some of the investors in the project include MTN, Neotel, Telkom, Vodacom, British Telecom, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), Bharti Airtel, Dalkom Somalia, Comoros Telecom, Mauritius Telecom and France Telecom, among others.
EASSy was constructed under a turnkey contract by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN). The system uses technology capable of delivering 3.84 Terabits per second, making EASSy the largest capacity submarine cable system serving Africa.
It also follows on the other mega project called Seacom last year.
Seacom brings cheaper internet between Europe and Africa and a local consortium, Abari Communications, spent a fortune to link to Seacom.
“The prices will gradually go down because we use an open system model, whereby we offer the same price to all internet service operators,” Abari Communications managing director, Neo Nwako said by then.
EASSy Chairman, Trevor Martins, said: “The system was delivered on time, under budget, with a much higher design capacity, whilst achieving exceptional collaboration amongst African operators.” “The EASSy system offers customers the most resilient and lowest latency technical solution for services from Africa to Europe and beyond. Furthermore, the EASSy owners’ funding structure ensures the most sustainable and financially secure submarine cable business model.”