The consortium-funded system is designed to connect Africa with the Middle East and South Central Asia and Europe. The group consists of MTN Group, PCCW Global, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Telecom Egypt (TE) and Telekom South Africa.
“Africa is an important emerging marketplace with ever-increasing opportunities arising from the positive socio-economic developments in many African countries,” said Homoud M. Alkussayer, vice president and head of wholesale business unit of STC.
“We believe that with its effective connectivity with the rest of the world, Africa-1 can become an important enabler and contributor to the economic progress of Africa in the coming years.”
Africa-1 cable system will have at least three fibre pair core extending over 12,000km along Africa’s East Coast towards Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, with up to an additional 5,000km for branches.
The system is said to leverage the latest 100G technology and will be initially equipped to accommodate several terabits of capacity.
The consortium members are said to have access to landings at all major cable systems in the Middle East, which will facilitate efficient and effective connectivity between Africa-1 and the rest of the world.
The construction and maintenance agreement is expected to be signed by June 2016, with a target ready for service timeframe by the third quarter of 2017.
