Latest update: 17 Aug 2010
Right click on this link and choose Save As to download the map in SVG format.
If you’re interested in seeing how these cables are changing access, Stanford University’s PINGer project is monitoring the impact of Seacom and other east coast cables as they come online.
| Seacom | EASSy | TEAMs | WACS | MainOne
|
GLO1 | ACE | |
| Cost (millions of USD)
|
650 | 265 | 130 | 600 | 240 | 800 | 700 |
| Length (km)
|
13,700 | 10,000 | 4,500 | 14,000 | 7,000 | 9,500 | 14,000 |
| Capacity
|
1.28 Tb/s | 3.84 Tb/s | 1.28 Tb/s | 5.12 Tb/s | 1.92 Tb/s | 2.5 Tb/s? | 5.12 Tb/s |
| Completion
|
July 2009 | July 2010 | Sept 2009 | Q3 2011 | Q2 2010 | Q3 2010 | Q2 2012 |
| Ownership
|
USA 25%
SA 50% Kenya 25% |
African
Telecom Operators 90% |
TEAMs (Kenya) 85%
Etisalaat (UAE) 15% |
Telkom
Vodacom MTN Tata (Neotel) Infraco et al |
US Nigeria, AFDB | France Telecom et al See below for full list |
Investor detail:
Seacom (http://www.seacom.mu)
Industrial Promotion Services (25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (USD 75 million)
(Kenya – founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan)
VenFin Limited (25%) – USD 75 million)
Herakles Telecom LLC (backed by Blackstone) (25%), New York-based lead company, no website (USD 75 million)
Convergence Partners (12,5%) – USD 37.5 million
Shanduka Group (12.5%) – USD 37.5 million
EASSy (http://www.eassy.org/)
EASSy is 90% African-owned although that ownership is underwritten by a substantial investment by Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) including World Bank/IFC, EIB, AfDB, AFD, and DfW. Total DFI investment is apparently $70.7 million, with $18.2 million coming from IFC, 14.5 million from AfDB. This is a smaller amount than the originally advertised $120 million investment from DFIs.
South African investors in EASSY include Telkom/Vodacom ($18.9 million) , MTN ($40.3 million), and Neotel (~$11 million).
WIOCC, an SPV created to facilitate open access is the largest shareholder, with 29%. WIOCC consortium members include: Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Gilat Satcom Nigeria Ltd., the Government of Seychelles, the Lesotho Telecommunications Authority, ONATEL Burundi, Telkom Kenya Ltd., Telecommunicacões de Mocambique (TDM), U-COM Burundi, Uganda Telecom Ltd., Zantel Tanzania and most recently, TelOne Zimbabwe and Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company (LPTIC)
Other investors in the system include Bharti Airtel Limited of India, British Telecommunications, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, France Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, Saudi Telecom Company, Comores Telecom, Sudan Telecom Company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Telecom Malagasy, Zambia Telecommunications Company, Zanzibar Telecom.
TEAMs
85 per cent of the cable is owned by TEAMs (Kenya) Ltd and the rest by Etisalaat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The TEAMS (Kenya) Ltd holding breaks down as follows:
- 42.5% – Telkom Kenya Ltd
- 22.5% – Safaricom Ltd
- 10% – Kenya Data Networks Ltd
- 10% – Econet/Essar Telecom Ltd
- 5% – Wananchi Group
- 3.75% – Jamii Telecom Ltd
- 1.25% – Broadband Access/AccessKenya Ltd
- 1.25% – Africa Fibrenet (Uganda) Ltd
- 1.25% – InHand Ltd
- 1.25% – iQuip Ltd
- 1.25% – Flashcom Ltd
West African Cable System (WACS)
- Telkom
- Vodacom
- MTN
- Tata Communications (Neotel)
- Broadband Infraco
- Cable & Wireless
- Portugal Telecoms
- Congo Telecoms (formerly Sotelco)
- Telecom Namibia
- Togo Telecom
- OCPT (Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications)
- Angola Telecom
MaIN OnE
Privately owned. On June 1, 2009, the African Development Bank confirmed USD 66 million financing for the project.
Africa Coast to Europe (ACE)
ACE consortium signatories:
- Baharicom Development Company
- Cable Consortium of Liberia
- Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações
- Côte d’Ivoire Telecom
- Expresso Telecom Group
- France Telecom
- Gambia Telecommunications Company
- International Mauritania Telecom
- Office Congolais des Postes et Télécommunications
- Orange Cameroun
- Orange Guinée
- Orange Mali
- Orange Niger
- PT Comunicações
- Republic of Equatorial Guinea
- Republic of Gabon
- Sierra Leone Cable Company
- Sonatel
- Sotelgui
Hi Rob. You can see a network diagram of where Seacom links inland at http://www.seacom.mu/network/network.html. The chart is mostly accurate except for the link to Toliary, Madagascar which is just a stub at the moment.
Hi Steve
Thanks for taking the time to keep the undersea maps up to date, they are very useful. Following on from Rob’s question do you know if anyone is keeping similar maps for overland/cross border cables in Africa. This will help to understand the possibilities and to plan for the future in land locked countries like Malawi. I know of the SEACOM options in East Africa and several old and new initiatives in West/Central Africa but it would be good to see these all summarised in one place somewhere as you’ve done for the submarine cables.
Cheers
Ian
Hi Ian. I would love to do a comprehensive terrestrial cables map but it is not nearly as simple as the undersea cables map. No one seems to be publishing maps with any detail of where the terrestrial fibre is. You get this kind of map from Seacom which tells you where the POPs are but not what the route overland is. I have tried to start a participatory Google map of African terrestrial fibre but it hasn’t really taken off. I will certainly put more effort into it if I see anyone else contribute.
This is a good work u have done. kudos!
Lots of questions have been asked on Fiber optic and especially now that SEACOM is live, We would like to answer this question and any other during our FIRST EVER FIBER SUMMIT IN NAIROBI – KENYA
Join us on 22nd – 23rd September, 2009 at Liaco Hotel Nairobi – Kenya
Hi Steve. Apparently Glo-1 is live! http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/09/06/glo-1-submarine-cable-lands-in-lagos/. All the best and great map!
Steve,
Tunsie Telecom are using Huawei Marine Networks to link Tunisia to Sicily see: http://www.huaweimarine.com/newsContent04.html
The Cable is called Hannibal. To my knowledge it is the first Tunisian majority owned submarine cable. This cable is going to be installed between Sept-Oct 2009.
Good work. I’ve build Networks to work over Satellite for African ISPs. I am glad to see that Fiber Access is a REALITY. My question is on the redundancy. (SAT3 failures took weeks to resolve).
I think Satellite will remain a viable option for at least a decade.
Cheers,
Kaiser
Landed but not live. I think their go live date is still November 09.
Thanks for the tip Stuart! Clever idea, Sicily is only a stone’s throw from Tunis. Will add it to the next version.
@kaiser I agree. Satellite will be around for years to come although they might not be making the egregious profits they were making when satelllite was the only option. I came across this article today favourably comparing VSAT to leased line costs in South Africa.
Steve,
Tunsie Telecom are using Huawei Marine Networks to link Tunisia to Sicily see: http://www.huaweimarine.com/newsContent04.html
The Cable is called Hannibal. To my knowledge it is the first Tunisian majority owned submarine cable. This cable is going to be installed between Sept-Oct 2009….
Hi – I’m very interested in finding out when the west coast ACE fibre-optic cable will be on-line for Sierra Leone. I suspect I’m not being particularly observant but can’t seem to find any mention of dates anywhere… Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks
Stephen
[...] Mahaliana ireo mpitoraka blaogy any Afrika Andrefana ny fahatongavan'ny tariby ambany ranomasina GLO-1 any Lagos tamin'iny herinandro iny. Mampifandray an'i Nigeria sy firenena 13 hafa any Afrika Andrefana ny GLO-1 amin'ny fotodrafitrasam-pifandraisana mandalo any Eropa, izay mitondra fatranonja [bandwidth] vaovao midadasika ho an'ny faritra. Ny GLO-1 no tariby anaty ranomasina vaovao indrindra any Afrika. Sarintany mandalo ny Many Possibilities. [...]
Hi Stephen, I haven’t seen any specific dates as yet. Even announced dates tend to be pretty variable in many cases. I suspect 2011 is about as accurate a prediction as you can get until some time next year.
Seacom’s arrival in South African just became a big joke now for many fans who expecting it will be a revolution for broadband market, it is even not a evolution, we still enjoy the same rate as before, nobody see any changes happened since its arrival,so all of us already lost the interest for others.
Interesting article http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/667644/-/item/0/-/hu0likz/-/index.html
[...] African Undersea Cables is a map of the planned submarine cables. [...]
I have been reading the postings and have not seen anything that relates to Liberia’s efforts to get connected to this submarine. cable. Does anyone know the status of Liberia’s connection to any submarine, if there is one or ever going to be one? Please let me know
who can email me the full version of the globe submarine cable map, latest of corse!
Try http://www.telegeography.com/products/map_cable/
There is an interesting (I admit the bias of being a co-author
publication on “eGY-Africa: Addressing the digital divide for science in Africa” available at:
http://elpub.wdcb.ru/journals/rjes/v11/2009ES000377/2009ES000377.pdf. The abstract is:
Adoption of information and communication technologies
and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but be-
cause of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide be-
tween Africa and the rest of the world exists, and the gap
is growing. In many sub-Saharan African countries, educa-
tion and research sector su er some of the worst defi cien-
cies in access to the Internet, despite progress in develop-
ment of NRENs {National Research and Education (cyber)
Networks. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy
statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that
strength in this very sector provides the key to meeting and
sustaining Millennium Development Goals. Developed coun-
tries with e ffective cyber-capabilities proclaim the bene fits
to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revo-
lution. This is but a dream for many scientists in African institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly
Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated.
eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists
and their collaborators to try to reduce this Digital Divide
by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facili-
ties. Four approaches are being taken. The present status
of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped
via a combination of direct measurement of Internet per-
formance (the PingER Project) and a questionnaire-based
survey. Information is being gathered on policy statements
and initiatives aimed at reducing the Digital Divide, which
can be used for arguing the case for better Internet facil-
ities. Groups of concerned scientists are being formed at
the national, regional levels in Africa, building on existing
networks as much as possible. Opinion in the international
science community is being mobilized. Finally, and perhaps
most important of all, eGY-Africa is seeking to engage with
the many other programs, initiatives, and bodies that share
the goal of reducing the Digital Divide either as a direct
policy objective, or indirectly as a means to an end, such
as the development of an indigenous capability in science
and technology for national development. The expectation
is that informed opinion from the scientifi c community at
the institutional, national, and international levels can be
used to influence the decision makers and donors who are in
a position to deliver better Internet capabilities.
African Undersea Cables – http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/
Thanks a lot for the map and statistics. I am trying to estimate how much telecom infrastructure investment the undersea cable systems can bring.
Steve,
I have been following your postings and those of others for quite a while; I must say, you do a great job. Much obliged for all your efforts. I have been researching Liberia’s chances of garnering a fiber optic connection; I’ve heard – and you responded- to my email confirm connection to ACE in 2011. What I don’t understand is, why does that country have to wait when there’s a cable landing in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and even Senegal? SAT-3/WASC is right ajacent to the country’s sea coast, I wonder why only an ACE implementation would be the alternative?
Thanks
Darren
The invisible highway for change? http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ thanks @bingy
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by carrotmadman6: African Undersea Cables – http://bit.ly/nb4hy...
[...] there is good news. Mark Shuttleworth’s Foundation has published a chart of the number of undersea cables that are coming to Africa. When you see at how poorly the continent has been served up till 2010, [...]
[...] http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ [...]
Interesting article:
Seacom, Main One team up for new cable:
http://www.techcentral.co.za/seacom-main-one-team-up-for-new-cable/14155/
Hi Nicolas. An amazing announcement given how much existing undersea cable activity there is. I’ll add it to the map when there is a little more evidence of it coming to fruition.
Amazing times ahead for Africa: http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ #stevesong #Internet #opticfibre #connectivity
main-one is up.
http://mainonecable.com/newsfull.php?nid=12
Hi Steve, What is the progress in getting the cable landing ststions on both the E and W coasts designed and implemented ? My company (GAP Project Engineers) based in South Africa designs and implements Data Centers and Telecoms Switching Centers all over Africa – see website – we have worked in +/- 26 countries to date. Thanks.
Hi Nicholas. If you’re looking for tender information on landing station construction, I’m sorry to say I don’t know details at that level.
Steve. EASSy goes live on Friday.
For completeness you should probably also now add LION2 and the MainOne/Seacom extension to the map. The TEAMS shareholding should also be updated to reflect the fact that the Govt. of Kenya has handed over its 20% to TKL.
Live on Friday! Fantastic news! Congratulations.
Regarding Seacom/MainOne and LION2, I haven’t heard anything more than a press announcement about either of them. Given the plethora of cables already underway, I am inclined to wait for a more concrete signal that they’ll go ahead before adding them to the map. Call me an old cynic.
Thanks for the news about TKL. Just catching up with that one. It appears that incumbents only know one way of playing.
[...] In the spirit of crowdsourcing information, Song asks his readers to put forward different perspectives on open access in Africa. Since the announcement of EASSy in 2005, open access has become a hot-button issue. EASSy is not a misspelling of easy; the East Africa Submarine Cable System, purports to “close the final link” in the digital divide—an initiative that aims to connect eastern Africa to the rest of the world using high-bandwidth fiberoptic cables. (To view a summary of African undersea cables, click here.) [...]
Hi,
MainOne is Live in Nigeria. We watched a live demo at the official luncheon yesterday.
MainOne is certainly up and running in Nigeria as noted by Ibrahim.
Yesterday (21st July) as part of the launch, MainOne had an interactive group TelePresence session involving the launch venue in Lagos and Cisco TelePresence facilities in London, Bangalore and Johannesburg.
[...] is an invasion of fibre-optic cabling across huge swatches of the continent, that is certain to smash much of the invisible ceiling that [...]
The information on Glo website states that the Glo1 submarine cable project cost $800million dollar as against the value on this site. I think this should be updated.
check out http://www.pccwglobal.com/network/network-map for a good global map of the submarine cables
Thanks for pointing that out @justict.
I note that your undersea cables map does not include SE-ME-WE 3. Why is that?
Hi Marcel. Actually I have left out a lot of cables in the Mediterranean. The map would be virtually unintelligible if I were to include them all. So I chose to focus on larger and/or newer cables. SEA-ME-WE 3 is significant though. I’ll experiment and see if I can fit it in and still make the map readable.
Hi Steve, point noted.
It’s just that the map is one of African Undersea Cables and EASSY/WIOCC make use of SE-ME-WE 3 for their onward connectivity to Europe at present.
[...] notably in the emerging economies of Asia and Africa. Africa will show a veritable explosion in the availability of submarine connections in the coming two years. The map shows some of the new connections coming to parts of South Asia [...]
Hi Steve,
I just noticed that on EASSY’s website they state at least twice a “Total capacity of 3.84Tbps”
(http://www.eassy.org/network_spec.html) and (http://www.eassy.org/network_overview.html)
Does that mean they are just doubling (well more than doubling) the commonly stated figure of 1.4Tbps because it’s a 2 fibre pair, or is it genuinely 3.84Tbps now?
Exciting! (Maybe..)
You’re absolutely right. EASSy does have a design capacity of 3.84 terabits/s now. This upgrade doesn’t have anything to do with the fibre optic cable itself but rather improvements in the terminating equipment supplied by Alcatel-Lucent. Map now updated to reflect this change.