Undersea telecoms cable project to be launched

.. Ghana is one of the loading Points

Durban - The $639 million undersea telecommunications cable linking South Africa with Europe and Asia would be officially inaugurated by Senegal's head of state on May 27, Wouter Myburgh, Telkom's senior manager of international network operations, said yesterday.

Telkom, which has an $85 million stake in the 28 800km global telecoms route, initiated the project when it signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia in July 1996.

This was followed by a pact with African operators in May 1997 and later with various European and US players.

"About 34 other funders, who do not wish to disclose their identity for competitive reasons, include most of the leading European operators, three key US players, some from Asia and one from Australasia," Myburgh said.

He confirmed that 54 percent of the project had been funded by operators from outside Africa.

"Telkom wanted to create an alternative, economically driven route to the East and expand its traffic pulse to Europe with the assistance of foreign funding that would greatly reduce its own outlay," he said.

Myburgh said commissioning tests had been completed on both the SA Far East (Safe) and Sat3/Wasc segments of the high-capacity fibreoptic cable and end-to-end traffic testing from Europe to Asia should be finalised by mid-April.

The 15 000km Sat3 segment links Cape Town and Portugal with 10 loading points in west African countries including Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Angola, many of which are offering connectivity to landlocked neighbours. The 13 800km Safe segment links Durban with India and Malaysia, via Reunion and Mauritius.

The project will improve South Africa's global connectivity up to 120 times with a capacity equal to 5.83 million simultaneous telephone conversations or over 8 000 digital television transmissions. However, it is not expected to significantly reduce costs, as it is only one link in a basket of cost inputs.

Originally due to have been commercially operational by December, the project has been delayed by several unforeseen circumstances, including a major fire on one of the Safe installation vessels near Reunion Island, which destroyed most of its installation and maintenance capability.

"Road construction in India also damaged the cable and violent weather conditions in the Atlantic and round the Cape caused further delays. These were exacerbated by manufacturing hold-ups and software problems," Myburgh said.

Configuration changes and the addition of four extra landing points in Africa also expanded the scope of the project, adding to the time frame.

Andrew Weldrick, Telkom's corporate communications head, said new operators using the cable would have to sign binding right-of-use agreements with the stakeholders.