Construction of the cable started in Maputo, Mozambique in December 2009, and its completion will make it the third fibre optic cable in Kenya, with Teams and Seacom cables having been completed last year.
The cable will be formally handed over to the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) board by Alcatel sub-marine networks, who were the sub-contractors, on Wednesday next week in Nairobi.
The cable, constructed by a consortium of telecommunications companies, offers a direct route to Europe, and is the largest cable system in sub-Saharan Africa.
“All the Eassy landing stations have been completed, tested and are fully operational. These are Port Sudan, Djibouti, Mombasa, Dar-esalaam, Moroni in Comoros Islands, Toliary in Madagascar, Maputo in Mozambique and Mtuzini in South Africa,” the management said in a press release on Tuesday, signed by its chief commercial officer, Mr James Wekesa.
The 10,000 kilometre cable cost $263 million (Sh21 billion) and has a capacity of 1.4 terabits per second, making it the largest submarine cable system serving the African continent.
Kenya is served by the East African Marine System (TEAMS) and Seacom, which have not relieved users of their troubles as many businesses have complained of recording losses due to prolonged connectivity downtimes.
EASSy, which landed in Mombasa in March, has nine landing stations along the Eastern Africa coastline, stretching from Sudan all the way to South Africa.
Chris Wood Chief Executive West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC),said that Multiple submarine cable systems will bring diversity and security for customer traffic adding that TEAMS, Seacom and EASSy, will have a role to play in East, Central and Southern Africa.
“EASSy will be the first East Coast system to connect on a direct route to Europe, making it the lowest latency system for traffic to key Internet peering points in Europe and North America.
“Other systems use a longer path to reach Europe, through connections in either India or UAE,” he said.
BRIAN ADERO in Kenya, Nairobi
