Alcatel-Lucent to upgrade submarine cable's capacity

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a new contract with the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) consortium to increase the cable's capacity to 1.4T bps (bits per second) from 320G bps.

The agreement allows Alcatel-Lucent to change the equipment design to accommodate the new capacity requirements. The design change, however, will have no effect on the cable's June 2009 delivery deadline.

"This design change reflects our capacity to capture our customers' requirements and to provide tailored solutions that can easily evolve over time as needed," said Etienne Lafougère, president of Alcatel-Lucent's submarine network activity.

The upgrade will enable the EASSy consortium to support the enhanced capacity required to meet the new bandwidth requirements that emerged in the past year, Lafougère added.

The EASSy network will span nearly 10,000 kilometers, linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa. The project was developed by 25 licensed telecommunications operators in the Eastern and Southern African region and international carriers.

"This increase in final system capacity is another important step in the development of the African communication infrastructure, where there is a very strong need for affordable capacity," said MTN's Trevor Martins, chairperson of the EASSy Management Committee.

Alcatel-Lucent won the contract in March 2007 to deliver the submarine cable, which is expected to compete with SEACOM and The East African Marine System (TEAMS).