Huawei Marine, a global submarine cable networks provider, is in the process of completing the initial work required to build a new submarine cable that will connect South Asia with East Africa and beyond.
This includes the Desk Study and Marine Survey works which will determine feasibility of the planned undersea cable.
Once approved, Huawei Marine and investor Tropic Science will construct the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) submarine cable between the two continents, according to TechCentral.
Work has already commenced on the project, following a contract signed between Huawei Marine and Tropic Science in November, and construction is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2019.
Connecting to Asia in the Pakistani cities of Gwadar and Karachi, the cable is planned to connect to Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia on the East African coast.
That initial phase will involve cable spanning around 3,852 miles, with a second phase extending connections to South Africa and Europe, bringing the total length to more than double that of the first phase.
Mao Shengjiang, chief operating officer of Huawei Marine, expressed his pleasure at the start of the project.
“We are pleased to commence work on this important project to ensure a timely delivery programme,” said Shengjiang, according to Businesstech.
“Our customer-centric focus and commitment to quality and on-time delivery, is a hallmark of our company values. I would like to thank Tropical Science and our other partners for their trust in Huawei Marine,” he added.
The undersea cable system will be based on 200G DWDM technology, and once completed the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express cable will have an ultimate design capacity of up to 60Tbit/s.
East Africa is already served by two submarine cable systems at the moment, with Eassy and Seacom in operation, while others are in the pipeline for the region.
In November last year the announcement was made regarding a new submarine cable which is being built between South African and India via islands in the Indian Ocean, according to Telecompaper.
The high speed telecommunications system is being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and Indian Ocean Exchange Cable, with work underway to connect Mauritius, Rodrigues, Reunion, India and South Africa via high speed cable.
The Indian Ocean Exchange Cable System will be around 5,500 miles long will be completed in 2019, becoming the first open-access cable system in the region, the companies said.
The new high speed cable will enhance communication capabilities along the India-to-South Africa route, connecting with current and future submarine networks for further connectivity to the West coast of Africa, Middle East, Europe, U.S. and other parts of Asia.
