SEACOM and Interoute join forces to bring higher quality internet into Africa
New broadband infrastructure project promises Africa higher quality access to the World Wide Web
London on 18 April 2011
SEACOM, Africa’s only submarine cable connecting Africa to Europe and Asia, and Interoute, owner operator of Europe’s largest next-generation network, initiated a project that is set to bring a higher quality Internet experience to Africa. The multi-million Euro project involves the design, deployment and operation of nine land-based Internet access points that connect the SEACOM subsea cable to the broadband fibre networks of East and South Africa.
The SEACOM Internet access points are located in France, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania with expansion plans to install PoPs in Uganda and Rwanda. The SEACOM network is enabled with content caching nodes that will effectively bring the World Wide Web closer to the people and businesses in Africa. By storing web content at a point closer to where the internet is accessed, the user internet browsing experience is richer and faster.
The building of the network has already begun, with nodes in Dar Es Salaam, Johannesburg, Maputo, Mombasa, Mtunzini and Marseille already live. SEACOM will be offering managed IP services to customers from April.
Gareth Williams, CEO at Interoute, commented: “First, SEACOM brought high capacity, low cost Internet access to the African continent via the SEACOM subsea cable. Now this new project will increase the quality of user experience that is needed to realise the full potential of the Internet as a powerful business, communication and learning tool for the people of Africa. It’s exciting to be putting the expertise and experience we developed building and managing Europe’s largest next generation network to work building a key part of Africa’s Internet.”
Since the fibre optic SEACOM subsea cable went live in 2009 and the dramatic reduction in Internet costs that followed (prices in some parts of East Africa fell from $4,000 to under $500 per megabit), broadband consumption has jumped in some cases almost 10 fold within the first year of commercial service. The availability of fast Internet speeds has already provided improved services in Africa such as to health workers who can access critical data in time to save lives, better education through the accessibility of information resources, and improved business operations by benefiting from technologies hosted in the cloud.
The new network will build resilience into the availability of advanced Internet services. Currently, all Internet traffic to East Africa is routed via Europe, leaving the region exposed to data losses if any of the land-based or submarine section of the system is damaged. The new network will provide alternative routing via Asia as well as local routing, enabling local network continuity in the event of outages in the Mediterranean or Middle East.
Brian Herlihy, CEO at SEACOM, comments: “Our aim is to provide the people of Africa with the best and most reliable Internet experience available. This new network provides high-quality managed Internet and Ethernet services enabling service continuity in the event of some cable break occurrences, ensuring that local businesses are supported, strengthening the region’s emerging telecom market.”
Local Internet Service Providers will utilise SEACOM to deliver high capacity connectivity down the ’last mile’, using both fixed and fixed mobile technologies. Interoute’s managed business services, including connectivity, VPN services, and managed hosting will be available through SEACOM.
Interoute and SEACOM have also entered into a distribution agreement which enable services across the two networks. This means that customers will benefit from seamless services delivered across Africa and Europe.
About SEACOM
SEACOM is a privately financed, developed and owned submarine fibre optic cable network bringing high quality, affordable broadband capacity to Africa through the sale of wholesale international bandwidth and associated services on an open-access basis since July 2009.
Stretching some 17,000km along the eastern and southern African coastlines and onwards to India and Europe, the SEACOM system has already connected many African countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia bringing in many instances previously unavailable access to unrestricted bandwidth.
The SEACOM network offers bundled backhaul, open-access points of presence and global partnerships, to provide high quality, cost effective, end-to-end connectivity. Tiered pricing coupled with open access system integration solutions means that SEACOM has moved beyond the cable to become a major pan-African network with a full suite of IP services and unprecedented benefits for customers.
SEACOM truly believes in a world where the African Internet experience is reliable, interconnected and characterised by abundant local content, minimal latency as well as fast download and streaming speeds. This vision is at the heart of SEACOM’s commitment to Building the African Internet.
About Interoute
Interoute is the owner/operator of Europe’s most advanced and densely connected voice and data network, encompassing over 60,000 km of lit fibre, 8 Data Centres, 32 purpose-built colocation centres and on-net to another 150 partner Data Centres across the European footprint. Interoute’s full-service next generation network serves international enterprises from a broad range of sectors including aerospace, automotive, finance, pharmaceutical and retail, plus every major European incumbent, as well as the major operators of North America, East and South Asia, governments, universities and research agencies. These organisations find Interoute the ideal partner for hosting content, providing wholesale bandwidth and transit services, corporate connectivity or creating new services. With established operations throughout mainland Europe, in North America and Dubai, Interoute also owns and operates dense city networks throughout Europe’s major business centres. Providing service and support in 15 European languages, Interoute is a key part of Europe’s Digital Supply Chain. The network is future-proofed, endowed with Europe’s largest fibre and duct reserve, and is a leader in the deployment of advanced network technologies, from the ground to the Cloud. www.interoute.com
