Denis Opudo
Desktop Study carried out on Pakistan East Africa Cable Express might soon workout. Huawei Marine is handling the study. Submarine telecommunication system will link Africa to the outside world. The countries on the plan include Pakistan, Kenya, Djibouti, South Africa and Somalia. Not African countries but countries along Africa’s eastern shoreline.
Tropic Science the company behind the designing of the cable is Chinese based. Huawei Marine will start a survey on 15th January 2017. Pakistan East Africa Cable Express expected to be operational before the end of 2019. Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, and Pakistan will be linked in the first phase. That will cover a distance of 6,200 kilometers. South Africa will connect to Europe in the second phase at distance of 13,000 kilometers. The cable is on a 200G dense wave-division multiplexing technology. It also has a design capacity of 60Tbit/s.
According to Huawei Marine and Tropic Science, the initiative will improve communication. Communication might improve within the three continents. The continents include Asia, Africa, and Europe. According to Tropic Science chairman He Liehui economic development will go up. The main investor in the African countries of late is China. Communication is important for the development of any country/continent.
The cable will improve communication between Africa and China. Huawei Marine chief operating officer Mao Shengjiang said the development will bore fruits. In November 2017 there was signing of the construction contract for the project. The contract was between Huawei Marine and Tropic Science. Currently, the east coast of Africa is under two submarine systems. The two systems are Seacom and Eassy. But there are plans to bring in a possible cable supported by Liquid Telecom. The cable named Liquid Sea will be of great help.
