ChannelVision Magazine

INTERNATIONAL AGENTS PCCW Global and PEACE Cable In - ternational Network are working together to extend the Pakistan East Africa Con - necting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable system to southern Africa. The PEACE South extension will boost bandwidth and have an important impact on connectiv - ity from its current African landing point in Mombasa, Kenya, all the way to South Africa, opening new Southern African De - velopment Community (SADC) and east African markets to cable partners. In addition, PEACE South will provide alternative routes for existing systems, connecting southern Africa to Europe and Asia with newer, faster high-bandwidth technology and assisting the region to improve internet usage and reduce the cost of connectivity. “The construction of Peace East and Peace Med are both expected to be completed on time, on budget and within the originally specified plan of work,” ex - plained PCCW Global chief commercial officer Frederick Chui. The southern Africa extension follows the overall success of the cable develop - ment project and the smooth implementa - tion of operations, from survey activities and the issuing of the relevant country permits through to manufacturing and fac - tory acceptance, said PCCW Global. In September it was announced that PEACE, along with Liquid Telecom and Africa Data Centre, signed a landing party agreement for a landing point in Kenya, and it respectively, with PCCW Global and Orange, signed a deal to deploy the new PEACE Med subsea cable at a landing station in Marseille. New technologies deployed in the con - struction phase of the project will enable each country’s bandwidth allocation to be modified during the lifetime of the cable. Once the cable is live, individual cable stakeholders will have the ability to inde- pendently structure the network according to their own specifications, without affect - ing others using the same cable system. When completed, the high-speed PEACE cable system will offer very low- latency routes from China to both Europe and Africa, interconnecting three of the world’s most populous continents. Once complete, PEACE will link France to Pakistan using the Europe- Asia route, and Mombasa in Kenya, via an Indian Ocean route that will ensure optimum latency. With plans to extend toward South Africa and eastward to - ward Southeast Asia, the cable will total 15,000km in length and is set to be ready for service in 2021. DE-CIX recently announced that its next internet exchange will be opened in the second half of 2020 in the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. The ex - change will be fully operated by the DE- CIX itself. The new location will be marketed as DE-CIX Singapore and will run on DE-CIX Apollon interconnection platform, allowing the provisioning of different interconnec - tion services such as peering and cloud exchange. This comes just two months after DE-CIX announced its market entry in Malaysia through a partnership with the Starwing Technologies Sdn. Bhd. group. “DE-CIX Singapore, as the heart of the ASEAN region, is just the next logical step we are taking in our international expan - sion,” said Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX In - ternational. “Whilst Singapore has been a major content hub for the region over the last decade, the key content and cloud- computing players have started to extend their footprint throughout ASEAN. This will pave the way in our further expansion in the region for creating a robust and secure interconnection ecosystem, with more to come in the next year or two.” FreeConferenceCall.com  has added video and collaboration tools to its free conference call - ing suite for users in the U.K. and France. The launch of local and international video confer - encing enables users in both countries to benefit from all the same features and capabilities as the largest paid-for confer - encing brands but for free, said the company.  “Users in the U.K. and France gain a new affordable option for connecting and collaborating with local and global audiences,” said Bill Swain, vice president of mar - keting at FreeConferenceCall. com. “Unlike other conferencing services, FreeConferenceCall. com provides a comprehensive suite of collaboration tools with truly global reach, at no cost.” FreeConferenceCall.com oper - ates a freemium model with a local presence in more than 73 coun - tries across the globe. Upgrades can be added for a minimal fee, including toll-free numbers, cus - tom greetings, custom hold music, extra storage and the use of one number to remove the need for access codes for U.S. participants. It is the second largest conferenc - ing provider in the world based on minute volume. Local and international video conferencing includes up to 1,000 participants and can last up to six hours with no hidden fees for users. Mid-market and enterprise customers can take advantage of FreeConferenceCall.com For Business, featuring 24/7 custom - er support, enterprise account management teams and custom - ized user analytic reports.. PCCW Global to Extend PEACE Cable to Southern Africa DE-CIX to Open Internet Exchange in Singapore FreeConference Call.com Adds Services in U.K., France 30 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020