wiredInUSA February 2019

Africa cable moving forward

A consortium of Saudi Telecom, MTN group, Telecom Egypt, Telkom South Africa, PCCW Global and Etisalat has signed a construction and maintenance agreement for Africa-1, a submarine cable system linking South Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Europe. The 20,000km system is due to start operations in early 2021. “We believe strongly in the potential success of this project due to the strength of our partners,” said Marc Halbfinger, chief executive officer of PCCW Global. “All are major telecommunications service providers. We view Africa-1 as a natural extension to facilitate the increasing capacity demands of the Asia-Africa trade corridor with better levels of reliability to connect people and business in the world’s fast-growing economies.”

PCCW Global, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Telecom Egypt and Telkom South Africa entered into a memorandum of understanding to construct the new system. At the time the plan met with reservations. Chris Wood, chief executive officer of African connectivity wholesaler WIOCC, and co-chair of the EASSy consortium, called the project “totally unnecessary”. increasing opportunities arising from the positive socio-economic developments in many African countries,” said Homoud M Alkussayer, vice president and head of wholesale business unit of STC. “We believe that with its effective connectivity with the rest of the world, Africa-1 can become an important enabler and contributor to the economic progress of Africa in the coming years.” However, “Africa is an important emerging marketplace with ever-

News of the cable development was released in 2016 when MTN group,

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wiredInUSA - February 2019