Global communications firm Alcatel-Lucent is to upgrade the EASSy submarine cable system, one of the largest and most modern systems serving Africa, with the deployment of the latest 100 gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) technology, the firm announced Thursday from its Paris-based headquarters.
Alcatel-Lucent‘s 100G technology will enable the system to ultimately carry capacity in excess of 10Tbit/s, further complementing its ability to carry high volumes of data capacity on the EASSy system, which runs 10,000km from South Africa to Sudan, in support of the continued explosion of data traffic in Africa.
The firm said it would leverage its unmatched experience of deployments around Africa to provide this upgrade within EASSy’s requested timeframe.
EASSy is owned and operated by a group of 17 African and international shareholders – all telecommunications operators and service providers.
The system is implemented in a protected ring configuration linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Comoros and Mozambique.
Landings are located in Port Sudan, Djibouti (Djibouti), Mombasa (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Moroni (Comoros), Toliary (Madagascar), Maputo (Mozambique) and Mtunzini (South Africa).
Also, the system addresses a wide range of international destinations through interconnection with multiple international submarine cable networks for diverse, seamless onward connectivity to Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.
Chris Wood, Chairman of the EASSy Management Committee said: “Since EASSy entered service in 2010, we have seen enormous growth in demand for capacity on the system, reflecting the service quality and reliability that we have been able to offer.
“This upgrade will add an additional 400Gbps of capacity throughout the system, using Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced coherent 100Gbit/s technology, and enables us to take a further step in offering our customers the ultra-broadband capacity needed for innovative services and applications.”
EASSy is owned and operated by a group of African (92 percent) and international (8 percent) telecom operators, namely: Botswana Fibre Networks, British Telecom, Comoros Telecom, Etisalat, Orange, Mauritius Telecom, MTN Ltd, Neotel, Network i-2-i (Bharti), Saudi Telecom Company, Sudan Telecom Company (Sudatel) and Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Its other owners and operators are Telecom Malagasy, Telkom SA SOC Ltd, Vodacom (Pty) Ltd, Zambia Telecommunications Company Ltd and WIOCC (comprising Botswana Fibre Networks, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Gilat Satcom Nigeria Ltd, Seychelles Cable System Company, Lesotho Communications Authority, Libya Post Telecom and Information Technology Company (LPTIC), Onatel Burundi, Telkom Kenya Orange, TDM Mozambique, TelOne Zimbabwe, U-COM Burundi, Uganda Telecom and Zantel (Tanzania).
