PCCW Global and PEACE Cable International Network will work together to extend the Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable system to southern Africa.
The PEACE South extension will boost bandwidth and have an important impact on connectivity from its current African landing point in Mombasa, Kenya, all the way to South Africa, opening new Southern African Development 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.
“Since 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,” explained PCCW Global chief commercial officer Frederick Chui.
The southern Africa extension follows the overall success of the cable development project and the smooth implementation of operations, from survey activities and the issuing of the relevant country permits through to manufacturing and factory acceptance.
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 construction 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 independently structure the network according to their own specifications, without affecting 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 towards South Africa and eastwards towards South East Asia, the cable will total 15,000km in length and is set to be ready for service in 2021.
Stop by booth 929 CVx at ITEXPO to meet the PCCW Global team.
