New East Africa cable to go live in April

Following the recent broadband cable cut that affected much of East Africa’s connectivity, the new Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2) is set to go live and active on 14 April, 2012.

A map showing the location of the LION2 cable (image: subseaworldnews.com)

The landing station in Mombassa has been completed, and will enable the lead investor in the project, Orange Kenya, to begin leasing broadband Internet services to potential service providers, the company said.

The cable was built by France Telecom at a cost of KES 6.2 billion. Orange Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein told Business Daily on Wednesday, adding that the LION2 cable “will provide a redundancy route to operators using the other three cables, the East African Marine System (TEAMS), Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and Seacom.”

He added that the cable will be going live mid-next month, “and Orange is targeting operators currently connected to the other cables but looking for affordable redundancy routes to the Middle East.”

The cable covers some 3,000 kilometers to Nyali, Mombasa via the island of Mayotte located in the northern Mozambique channel from Mauritius.

Joseph Mayton

March 30, 2012/by actualize

Mozambique gets a slice of SEACOM

The Mozambican Ministry of Science and Technology has signed a 20 year agreement to access international broadband fibre connectivity on the SEACOM network to Europe and onwards to the rest of the world.

SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Mark Simpson (image: mybroadband)

Beneficiaries of the newly acquired capacity include the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet) and the Government Electronic Network (GovNet), which are government-led projects established to improve online public service access and capability.

The bandwidth will help MoRENet to deliver reliable and cost-effective, high-speed internet traffic to member institutions whilst creating the platform to share education and research content with other Nationwide Research Education Networks (NRENs) around the world.

Similarly, GovNet will be able to better support its mandate to improve eGovernment performance. GovNet currently interconnects government institutions at both central and provincial levels, with an aim to connect all state and government institutions through a single private data communications network.

SEACOM CEO, Mark Simpson, said: “SEACOM is the ideal partner to provide the international connectivity that will complement Mozambique’s extensive broadband data communications networks initiatives. Over the past three years, we have witnessed how the availability of true broadband at lower prices can accelerate educational initiatives and economic development across the region and we look forward to working with the Mozambican government to help Build a truly African Internet.”

Both MoRENet and GovNet form an important part of the Mozambican government’s ICT Policy Implementation Strategy. The policy covers all major areas of Mozambique’s economy and society; tasked with creating an enabling environment for societal upliftment, improved performance of both public and private sectors and most importantly the ultimate eradication of poverty in the country.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Evaristo Baquete, said: “The Mozambican government views affordable and high quality data networks as a vital tool to achieve the country’s various developmental goals. SEACOM brought cheaper and faster international connectivity to this country and we believe that they are the partner of choice to continue to bring about positive changes to the country and its people.”

SEACOM believes in a world where the African internet experience is characterised by abundant local content, minimal latency, fast download and streaming speeds, and interconnected African markets. Today, over a dozen countries across the African continent have access to SEACOM’s low cost products and services via its extended network.

Staff writer

January 31, 2012/by actualize