"Historic day" for Africa as fibre optic goes live

23 July 2009

The completion of a fibre optic cable system linking south and east Africa to global networks marks a "historic day" for the continent.

Operated by Seacom, the 17,000-km long undersea cable has now gone live - connecting Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya with Europe and Asia.

The company behind the technology asserted the launch opens up great opportunities for the nation as government, businesses and citizens can network on a global platform.

Brian Herlihy is the chief executive officer of Seacom and noted the completion of the project "marks the dawn of a new era" for the continent's communication abilities with the rest of the world.

"We are proud to be the first to provide affordable, high quality broadband capacity and experience to east African economies," he said.

Seacom offers speeds of 1.2 TB/s and aims to meet the bandwidth needs of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, as well as the other requirements of the economy and continent.

Category: ICT