Developing Telecoms | Alcatel wins EASSy contract

17 May 2012

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Alcatel wins EASSy contract

Thursday, 03 August 2006 13:57 | Alec Barton

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Following on almost immediately from our report about the financing of the East African Submarine Cable project (EASSy), Developing Telecoms can report that Alcatel of France has won the EASSy contract par excellence.

The project, to connect East Africa's coasts to the worldwide fibre-optic network, is valued at approximately US$204 million.

Authorisation was granted by local telecoms companies whose senior executives gave their approval for the project's construction and management in an agreement which will take EASSy forward 25 years. Signing of the agreement was not in fact carried out by all countries together but Burundi, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania have started the ball rolling.

A representative of the latter country is John Sihra of Zanzibar Telecommunication (Zantel) who acts as project co-ordinator. He is not only confident that the remaining countries will sign the construction and management document but that construction will commence as early as August provided this can be ironed out with Alcatel.

It took two years to choose Alcatel as key player but according to John Sihra any company in Africa with an approved licence can participate in EASSy.

The ultimate aims of EASSy are to cut telephone call and Internet costs, thereby stimulating investment. In this respect, the unrestricted bandwidth available from EASSy will play a major role. Telkom Kenya MD Sammy Kirui anticipates telecom prices being halved once EASSy is up and running.

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