Affordable smartphones to drive broadband penetration in Africa
The rapid drop in smartphone pricing will play a major role in bringing Internet connectivity to Africans over the next five to 10 years, uplifting economies throughout the continent in the process. According to Aidan Baigrie, head of Business Development at Seacom, with some smartphones already dropping below the US$100 threshold and sub $50 devices [...]
R36 million broadband project launched
The Meraka Institute and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have announced the completion of the Tshwane broadband network.
The R36 million network forms part of the South African National Research Network (SANReN) – a high-speed network that aims to connect more than 200 research and tertiary sites around the country with one another as well as with international research and education organisations around the globe.
SANReN provides international connectivity via the SEACOM submarine cable through an arrangement with SANReN’s operating partner TENET.
Seacom tests 500Gb/s fibre network
Undersea fibre-optic cable system operator Seacom has announced it has successfully five 100 Gb/s channels of coherent optical transmission over more than 1 700 km. The 500Gb/s trial was run over and looped back across Seacom’s newly built 930 kilometre Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) fibre route which links the Mtunzini cable landing station in KwaZulu [...]
Seacom invests R100m on local network
Undersea cable operator, Seacom, says it has invested R100 million in additional South African infrastructure to meet the continuous high growth in demand for broadband services and applications.
The investment includes the purchase of physical optical fibre links from Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) as well as installing the equipment required for Seacom to manage the network linking KwaZulu-Natal coast, where the Seacom marine cable lands, to two redundant Points of Presence in Gauteng.
The company says initially 100 Gigabit per second of the fibre will be lit and a further 20 waves are expected to be lit within the next 12 months. Using ultra-modern transmission technology of 100 Gb/s per wavelength gives the new link a design capacity of over 8 Terabit per second.
This is in line with plans to expand the marine portion of the cable to over 4.8 Terabits per second, says Seacom.
Seacom links Mozambique
Seacom says it has signed an agreement with a Mozambican telecommunications company, Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM), giving its customers access to the fibre optic network in the country.
The agreement gives Seacom and its customers access to the largest and most distributed fibre optic network in Mozambique as well as a diverse route into Zimbabwe and additional border presence into Malawi and SA.
According to Seacom through this agreement, customers in Zimbabwe are able to interconnect to the Seacom system in Maputo via Mutare.
“This additional route through Mozambique complements Seacom’s existing route through SA via Beit Bridge and provides Zimbabwean customers with resiliency and redundancy” said the company.
Seacom, Main One provide Pan-African connection
Seacom and Main One have interconnected their West and East African Cable Systems, extending their networks to create a system that offers connection between South Africa and Nigeria.
“While efforts to implement a physical cable between Nigeria and South Africa continue, we have joined our cables together in Europe to satisfy many of our customers’ immediate requirements for capacity between Nigeria and South Africa,” explained Funke Opeke, Main One CEO.
According to Seacom, the joint solution is provided on an open-access basis and will be immediately available, providing customers with a timing advantage ahead of the completion of other planned systems around the African continent.
WACS lands in SA
The high-capacity West Africa Cable System (WACS) has landed at Yzerfontein, near Cape Town – marking the introduction of the next major cable linking SA to Europe.
The 14 000km long fibre optic submarine cable system which spans the west coast of Africa and terminates in London, was landed by Telkom this morning.
“South Africa needs a 3rd international fibre gateway to reduce the risk of complete isolation from the rest of the world. Telkom operates submarine cable gateways at Mtunzini, Melkbosstrand and now also at Yzerfontein,” says Casper Chihaka, managing executive: Telkom Wholesale Services.
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