Majority Africa owned submarine fibre optic cable system, Seacom, has been awarded an agreement to supply Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) with international broadband fibre connectivity via a backhaul link through Djibouti.
Seacom is a 17 000km submarine fibre optic cable enabling eastern and southern African countries to connect to the rest of the world via India and Europe and the first such cable to connect the east African coast.
This deal marks a growing number of African landlocked countries to be connected to the Seacom network since its unveiling in July 2009, with tangible benefits resulting from Seacom’s arrival already showing across the region, explains the company. Kenya has seen bandwidth supply grow by 700% while Mozambique and Tanzania experienced increases of 850% and 1 000% respectively.
The company explains that readily available bandwidth will result in lower telecommunications costs and new opportunities across many sectors of the Ethiopian economy. This includes ICT industries, but also educational, clinical and scientific applications, which rely on the real-time sharing of data around the world at lightning-fast speed.
Ethiopia’s government is actively rolling out a $ 1.5 billion national initiative to improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, explains Seacom. Among other projects relating to landline and mobile telecoms services, the national fibre optic network is set to be expanded significantly to allow the implementation of its ICT vision.
“Seacom is ideally suited to provide international connectivity that will complement ETC’s extensive national initiative to link the country’s businesses and end-users with fibre broadband connectivity,” states Amare Amsalu, ETC CEO.
“The availability of high quality broadband at lower prices will accelerate economic development and educational initiatives that will enhance lives. It will also establish Ethiopia as an important commercial centre for Africa, and as a regional transit point for other service providers,” he concludes.
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