In a move that is set to hugely boost connectivity of East African countries with rest of the world, Bharti Airtel, one of the leading emerging markets’ telcos together with global telcos on Friday announced the launch of the EASSy cable system.

This 10000 Km cable has received investment of around $263 million and has a capacity of 1.4 terabits per second, making it the largest submarine cable system serving the African continent.

EASSy is the first East coast system to connect a direct route to Europe thereby helping to deliver data traffic faster to key internet peering points in Europe and North America.

It connects Mtunzini in South Africa to Port Sudan (in Sudan) with landing points in nine countries.

This cable system is expected to prove a boon in proliferation of broadband connectivity to all parts of Africa, a prerequisite for the successful production of e-commerce, internet, and other broadband applications and projects on the continent.

“Our investment of over US $500 million over the last two years is designed to create a global network that offers unmatched resilience and maximum diversity. The commencement of EASSy cable system is a significant step in our journey to create a robust undersea cable infrastructure for our customers,” said Ajay Chitkara, CEO, Global Data Business said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The consortium comprises of 16 telecom operators including Bharti Airtel and other players like British Telecom, Etisalat, Saudi Telecom, MTN International Group, Telkom South Africa and others.

EASSy landing stations include Port Sudan, Djibouti, Mombasa, Dar-easalaam, Moroni in Comoros Islands, Toliary in Madagaskar, Maputo in Mozambique and Mtuzini in South Africa.

Joseph Kimani