Africa's Teams cable project takes off

The long-awaited laying of the East African submarine cable system, dubbed Teams, has started from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to Kenya under the Indian Ocean.

The 5,000-kilometer, fiber-optic cable is now on course for completion in June, almost at the same time as the rival Sea Cable System (SEACOM) cable, which will cost more US$600 million.

The $130 million Teams cable will link Kenya's coastal town of Mombasa with Fujairah and will also connect other east African countries to international communications networks.

Kenyan Minister of Information and Communications Samuel Poghisio said the cable is on schedule to arrive in Kenya within two months.

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) has been contracted to lay the cable, sponsored by the Kenyan government and private telecom companies. The laying of the Teams cable underlines the stiff competition in the African broadband market.

Kenya has already been placing a terrestrial cable connecting different parts of the country to prepare for the arrival of the Teams submarine cable.

Once the cable lands in Mombasa, it will be connected to other terrestrial fiber-optic cables including the country's national fiber backbone infrastructure. The national fiber backbone infrastructure has already connected Kenya's major towns and border points in the region.

With an initial capacity of 40G bps, upgradable to 640G bps should the initial capacity be insufficient, the cable will be East Africa's low-cost telecom link with the rest of the world, with Kenya acting as communications hub for the east African region.

The route for the Teams cable has been shifted an extra 200 kilometers from the coastline for fear of cable ships being highjacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

"The piracy concerns by Somali pirates on the Indian Ocean have been resolved and the cable will land in Mombasa on time," Poghisio said.

Teams project shareholders include mobile service provider Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Kenya Data Network, Africa Fibre Net of Uganda and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates.

The cable is expected to land in Mombasa in the middle of June, almost at the same time as the rival SEACOM project, which is expected to be operational by the end of June. A third submarine cable also running under the Indian Ocean, the East Africa Submarine cable system (EASSY) project, will land a year later. Another new cable, the West Africa Cable System (WACS), which will provide the southern African region the first direct connection with Europe, will be operational in 2011.

Kenyan shareholders had pledged $110 million for the Teams project, while the other $20 million is expected to be raised by Etisalat. The landing station for the Teams project will house power equipment, transmission equipment and network monitoring equipment.

Africa currently relies on expensive satellite connections for telephones and the Internet, which is blamed for the high cost of communication.