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Oliver Kazunga Acting Business Editor
LIQUID Telecom through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Liquid Sea has started a project to build a new undersea cable linking Africa to the Middle East.
The project will also have onward connectivity to Europe.
In a statement, Liquid Telecom group chief executive officer Nic Rudnick said a request for the tender of the project has already been issued to international companies involved in the construction of submarine cables.
“The Liquid Sea project reaffirms our commitment to building Africa’s digital future and removing any bottlenecks in providing the fastest and most reliable access to the Internet to every single African on the continent.
“The impact of Liquid Sea will be a far more reliable and ultra-fast connection for governments, businesses, schools and homes in both coastal and landlocked countries across Africa.”
Liquid Sea will run an estimated 10,000 kilometres from South Africa to the Middle East.
It will be connected to Liquid Telecom’s pan-African terrestrial network, enabling a reliable and affordable international connectivity service to landlocked and coastal countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa including Zimbabwe.
The project, which is fully funded, will take two years to complete.
Rudnick said: “The new submarine cable is expected to directly connect all coastal countries along the east coast of Africa and to provide new connectivity to the Middle-East and Europe.
“The project will include landing stations in several ports that are currently not served by existing subsea cables.
“It’ll also leverage Liquid Telecom’s extensive terrestrial fibre network, the largest network of its kind in Africa, to provide onward connectivity to landlocked countries on the continent.”
Liquid Telecom chief strategy officer David Eurin recently said the upcoming project will provide a step-change in the way Internet connectivity is regarded in Africa.
“We’ll be able to leverage the new submarine cable and our terrestrial network to improve our offerings to carriers, enterprise customers and households throughout the continent.
“It’s of utmost importance to us to create equal opportunities to people living both in coastal and landlocked countries, the latter being too often forgotten in large international projects of this kind.”
The company’s terrestrial fibre network is the largest single, contiguous network that crosses many borders in Africa.
It is complemented by an award-winning satellite service for rural and remote areas.
The company was recently named the Best African Wholesale Carrier for the fourth consecutive year at the Global Carrier Awards.
Online Reporter