Telecom Egypt (TE) announced today it has signed two agreements with SEACOM Ltd and VSNL approximately worth $90m in relation to its TE North Submarine Cable Project, which was announced earlier this year.
SEACOM is an infrastructure investment group which will construct a 15,000 km submarine cable system that connects South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya to India and to the new TE cable station in Ras Sidr, Egypt near Suez. From here, TE will land the SEA Cable System and SEACOM will own a system within TE North cable system permitting the full SEACOM system to reach France seamlessly. SEACOM’s collaboration with TE and the TE North system permits it to complete its structure to connect South Africa and East Africa directly to Asia and Europe.
Brian Herlihy, President of SEACOM, Ltd. stated, ‘The experience in the submarine cable industry that TE brings to this solution and the ability to transit traffic directly to France, makes this the best solution for SEACOM. This solution permits SEACOM to offer its customers capacity from a PoP in a major African city to the PoP in Marseilles all on one system.’ TE and SEACOM estimate that their respective systems will be ready for service by the first half of 2009.
VSNL, a leading communications solutions provider and member of the Tata Group, is also engaging with TE North in a system within a system to offer the company’s global customers tier-one connectivity from Ras Sidr to France.
Mohamed Elnawawy, VP of International, Wholesale and Regulatory Affairs at TE stated ‘TE North is the first system within a system implementation on the very popular Northern Egypt based Mediterranean crossing route, the industry continues to look for innovative submarine cable efficiencies similar to the successful consortium structures. As such, TE North density achieves even more favourable build economics. The current deals show the different addressable geographies TE can serve.
SEACOM and VSNL engage with TE North to service the South and East Africa Markets as well as the Indian Markets respectively. The SEACOM and VSNL deals enable TE North business case, and are worth approximately US$90M, accounting for approximately 25% of TE North capacity. Those contracts are expected to be the first in a series of contracts that TE expects to enter into in relation to its TE North Submarine Cable System as well as the TE Transit Corridor.’
