Africa's EASSY project delayed by a year

The East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY) will be operational in June 2010 instead of June this year, according to a project official.

The delay means that the cable, owned by African and international telecommunications operators, is again the subject of speculation and allegations about the lack of seriousness of the project developers. A rival project, the Sea Cable System (SEACOM), has already announced that it will be operational as scheduled in June this year.

"The delays have been caused due to optimizing the cost structures and finalizing the agreements between all participating carriers and now that has been done," Wood said Monday via e-mail.

The project management is not worried about the delays because the most important thing is the long-term stability of the financial structure of the cable system, Wood said. Time and again, Wood said, the telecom industry has seen private equity financed companies build cables and then go bankrupt within a few years as their business model, hit by high costs, proved unattainable.

The laying of the EASSY cable will now begin in September this year. The construction and fitting out of the landing points is already in progress.

Chris Wood, CEO of the West Indian Ocean Cable Company, the largest shareholder of the project, stressed that the long-term business plan is to reduce the cost of bandwidth to the coastal and landlocked countries.

The arrival of the EASSY project on the eastern seaboard, Wood said, will be a key enabler for economic growth in the region by encouraging expansion of businesses based on the Internet, provision of call center services and outsourcing of other back office functions.

The West Indian Cable Company is an African-owned company set up by African operators as a vehicle for investment in the EASSY submarine cable system.

The financiers of the US$260 million project include the Africa Development Bank, the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank and the German Development Bank (KfW).

The project, Wood said, has the backing of 12 telecom operators in the region that include Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) of South Africa, Telkom Kenya, Telkom South Africa and Etisalat.

EASSY is designed to connect the East African seaboard to the rest of the world to support the increase in traffic from existing and new broadband services. The cable will also interconnect with multiple international submarine cable networks for connectivity to Europe, the U.S., Middle East and Asia.

The supply contract was signed between a consortium of operators and Alcatel -Lucent of France in 2007. The cable system will run under the Indian Ocean from Mtunzini, South Africa to Port Sudan in Sudan.

The EASSY cable will have landing points in 10 countries along the sea including Djibouti, Somalia, Mozambique and Madagascar, but will also connect 10 landlocked countries including Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Uganda and Rwanda through their national backbones.

The cable, when completed, for the first time offer reliable, high speed but low cost international connectivity to operators in the region, Wood said.

The cable's bandwidth will be sold on an open access basis, allowing all operators to have equal access to the cable.