The much anticipated landing of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) is firmly on course according to the largest single investor WIOCC, with the first of the nine landings on the
African coastline at Maputo, Mozambique on December 3rd.
Expected to go live in June 2010, hopes are high that the EASSy fibre optic cable will bring down the cost of internet connection, something that the already operating cables have failed to provide.
The CEO of WIOCC Chris Wood assures Africans of reduced internet connectivity charges buoyed by the shareholding of the EASSy consortium which has significantly reduced the cost of investment.
WIOCC is jointly owned by a grouping of 12 major telecom operators in East, Central and Southern Africa.
“Since our cost base will be low, we will be in a strong position to be competitive in pricing. We believe that due to competition internet costs will eventually down.”
Wood is also pegging on the cable’s scalability as an advantage that will encourage service providers sell internet at cheaper prices.
Under EASSy, service providers will be able to purchase capacity from as low as 2Mbps to as massive as 10Gbps with flexible contracts from 1 month upto 10 years for leases or Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) for the life of the cable.
Chairman of WIOCC John Sihra says that the company is committed towards creating an enabling environment for the setting up of new ISPs if the already established ISPs fail to follow WIOCC’s business model of low internet charges to the consumers.
