SEACOM’s fibre optic cable goes live, linking East Africa to Europe and India.

A fibre optic cable linking South and East Africa to India and Europe has finally been completed, opening up unprecedented opportunities across the continent.

SEACOM, the company responsible for installing the cable, says it hopes the cable will help drive economic growth and enhance the quality of life across Africa.

The cable – which is 17,000 kilometres long and runs at a speed of 1,28 terabytes per second – took two years to construct and reportedly cost around $650 million (£394m).

Currently it links Johannesburg, Nairobi and Kampala, and the company is working with its national partners to commission the final links to Kigali and Addis Ababa soon.

SEACOM CEO, Brian Herlihy, said: “Today is a historic day for Africa and marks the dawn of a new era for communications between the continent and the rest of the world.

“Our tireless efforts of the past 24 months have come to fruition and we are proud to be the first to provide affordable, high quality broadband capacity and experience to East African economies.”

Chairman of SEACOM, Nizar Juma was overjoyed at the completion: “Today is a momentous day for all associated with SEACOM. 

“The cable will change the lives of every man, woman and child in the countries connected by making previously unavailable technology accessible to everyone.”

In June, the telecommunications company announced that it had been forced to delay the “ready for service” date from 27 June to 23 July due to an increase in pirate activity off the Somalian coast throughout April and May, which had hindered progress.

In June, the Kenyan government announced it was planning to help improve access to the internet by allowing internet providers to offset the cost of purchasing new fibre optic bandwidth for 20 years. Read more here ^[1].