Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System

Name of the project and location
Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), East Africa.

Project description
The project involves the laying of a submarine fibre-optic cable to connect East African countries with the rest of the world. The proposed East African Submarine Cable will provide the last link to completely encircle Africa by high capacity optic-fibre telecommunications networks. The EASSy project will connect Burundi, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the aim of increasing accessibility to information and communication technologies by reducing the current prohibitive cost of telephony and Internet connectivity.

The cable will be a 9 900-km high-performance fibre-optic cable, running from Mtunzini in South Africa to Port Sudan, with landings in six other countries including Mozambique, Magagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti.
A comprehensive backhaul system will ensure that land-locked countries, such as Botswana, Burundi, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and others, will also benefit from the telecommunications link.

The EASSy cable system has been designed to complement other network systems currently in place.

In order to ensure effective integration with these global networks, telecommunications gateways will be established at Mtunzini, where EASSy will join with the SAFE and SAT-3/WASC systems; at Djibouti, to link with SEA-ME-WE-3; and in Port Sudan, to connect through the SAS-1 to SEA-ME-WE-3 & 4 systems.

Value
Project cost for a system from South Africa to Djibouti is estimated at $240-million.

This includes $170-million for the system supply and $30-million for project management.

The above excludes the cable-station building and ancillary services, which is estimated at $2-million each.

Duration
The EASSy is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2008.

Breakdown of main contracts
None stated.

Client
EASSy.

Latest developments
The partners in EASSy have awarded the contract to build the undersea cable to Alcatel-Lucent. The contract is worth around $240-million, with the cable scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The EASSy supply contract was signed by a consortium of operators from the partner countries, including Botswana, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa, in Johannesburg, on March 9, 2007.

Based on Alcatel-Lucent's submarine and terrestrial optical solutions, EASSy will connect the eastern African seaboard, as well as landlocked countries, to the rest of the world. It will also provide connectivity across the continent to support the increase in local traffic from existing and new broadband services.

Participants
The following (20) parties have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of the system: Botswana Telecom Corporation, Telecel Burundi, Onatel Burundi, Djibouti Telecom, Ethiopia Telecommunications Company, Telkom Kenya, Kenya Data Network, Telecom Malagasy, Malawi Telecom, TDM – Mozambique, Rwanda Telecom, Dalkom Somalia, Sentech, Telkom South Africa, Sudan Telecom, Zanzibar Telecom, TTCL, SatCom Africa Networks, MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom.

Alcatel-Lucent (contractor).

Construction materials
Not stated.

On budget and on time?
No. EASSy has been shrouded in controversy, has been delayed a number of times and is now expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2008.

Contact details for project information
EASSy project coordinator, John Sihra, tel +353 1 668 5205, fax +353 1 660 4840.