Djibouti launches regional 60Tbps subsea cable

01 June 2016 | Jason McGee-Abe

Djibouti Telecom and six other carriers have signed a construction and maintenance agreement (C&MA) to build the Djibouti Africa Regional Express (DARE), a 5,500km high capacity subsea cable system.

The DARE submarine cable system will connect Dar Es Salam, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Bossaso, Berbera, Mocha and Djibouti. The system will provide an alternative low latency route and provide high bandwidth connectivity from the Horn of Africa, East Africa and the Middle East.

The 100G cable system will deliver more than 60Tbps of capacity, and each branch is implemented with optical add/drop multiplexing nodes (OADM).

"DARE will stimulate exponential business growth in participating countries by providing robust, reliable and lowest latency connectivity," according to a Djibouti Telecom statement. Additionally, the diversified Points of Presence (PoP) and future connectivity options in Djibouti, Yemen, Somalia, Somaliland, Kenya, and Tanzania, will provide vital flexibility for the consortium carriers and their customers.

TE SubCom has been awarded the supplier contract for the DARE project, which will provide additional protection and diversity to existing heavily congested undersea cable systems.

The seven major carriers that make up the DARE consortium include: Djibouti Telecom, Africa Marine Express, TeleYemen, Telesom, Hormuud Telecom Somalia, Golis Telecom, and Somtel Group. The C&MA was signed on May 26, 2016.

The regional submarine cable system is expected to be completed by May 2018.