SEACOM, the leading telecommunication and management service provider in Africa, announced that the Equiano cable had been put into use on the Equiano submarine cable after landing in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2022. SEACOM provides special line service with a delay speed of+/- 110ms between South Africa and Europe, making it the fastest direct route on land.
The SEACOM service will be available from now on. Previously, SEACOM completed the necessary equipment and installation requirements with the help of its technical partner Infinira. The optical cable is now part of SEACOM’s submarine optical cable ecosystem around Africa, supported by the IP-MPLS network across the land.
Prenesh Padayachee, chief digital officer of SEACOM Group, said: “This launch is the result of many years of project negotiation and planning. Our goal is to provide customers with high-quality services from the first day. Equiano submarine optical cable represents a new stage of Africa’s digital transformation, meets Africa’s growing data demand, realizes cross-border digital trade, and provides new opportunities for citizens and enterprises.”
Nick Walden, senior vice president of global sales of Infinira, said: “Infinira is pleased to cooperate with SEACOM and use our industry-leading ICE6 800G technology to light up the Equiano submarine optical cable. With the highest spectral efficiency in the industry, ICE6 enables SEACOM to provide high-speed services to the maximum extent and provide multiple terabits of capacity on this key submarine link.”
Equiano submarine optical cable was originally announced by Google in 2019 and is one of the largest optical cables serving Africa. This optical cable extends from Portugal to South Africa, with a total length of 15000 kilometers, 12 pairs of optical fibers, and a design capacity of 144 Tbps. In addition to the landing station at Merck Bostrand in Cape Town, the optical cable also has a landing station at Rupert Bay in St. Helena, Africa; Lome, Togo; Lagos, Nigeria; And Swakopmund, Namibia. From these sites, the branch unit will expand its connection with other African countries.
Prior to that, SEACOM has completed a lot of work to support new connections, including upgrading its local and international transmission and IP network.
As part of the services provided to wholesale and corporate customers since March, SEACOM will provide fast transmission lines from Cape Town to Lisbon. This means that customers will enjoy high-speed connections without having to reroute data to other countries during transmission.
Padayachee said: “With the help of Infinira as our long-term partner and backhaul network equipment supplier in South Africa, SEACOM has positioned itself as a pan-African telecommunications supplier that directly enters the European market. Equiano submarine optical cable is an alternative route to enter and leave the African continent. This means that we can accommodate more data traffic and ensure longer uptime availability. Customers can rest assured that the existing capacity will meet their future And provide high performance results. ”
Finally, Padayachee said that in addition to affecting the connectivity of its countries, such as faster Internet speed and better user experience, the Equiano submarine cable is expected to have a significant economic impact on these countries. According to the regional economic impact assessment of African practice commissioned by Google and released in 2021, by 2025, optical fiber will increase South Africa’s GDP by 5.8 billion dollars and indirectly create 180000 jobs. Facts have proved that the popularity of the Internet and the increasing popularity of digital services will directly affect economic growth and prosperity. With this in mind, we must quickly and effectively provide customers with the service they need and the service quality they expect. SEACOM is very proud to be at the forefront of this development, and we look forward to how it will enable us to expand our business and product supply across Africa.