The T3 submarine cable system has landed in Amanzimtoti (Durban, South Africa). The 3,200 km cable was developed by Mauritius Telecom (MT) in collaboration with Liquid Intelligent Technologies (LIT). The new system connects South Africa to Mauritius and provides a total capacity of 18Tbps by connecting Réunion Island and Madagascar offshore. The T3 cable is being deployed by Alcatel Submarine Network (ASN) and is scheduled to go live by the end of 2023.
Pan-African telecom operator Paratus Group announces the launch of the Namibian branch of the Equiano submarine cable system. The Equiano cable, owned by Google, runs 15,000 kilometers from Portugal to South Africa. Schalk Erasmus, CEO of Paratus Group, commented: "The significant increase in available capacity allows us to export this capacity to the rest of the region, which not only benefits Namibia but also contributes to the connectivity and progress of the SADC region... ...Equiano opens up new opportunities for competition, fair pricing and expanded choice, unlocking the potential for economic growth and digital transformation.
Djibouti Telecom has proposed to sell its submarine cable infrastructure to Kenya's TEAMS Limited, a government-backed company that is a major shareholder in the 5,000-kilometer East African Marine System (TEAMS). Kenyan President William Ruto is quoted as saying, "Kenya will expeditiously review the offer by Djibouti Telecom to sell its submarine cable infrastructure to TEAMS Kenya, taking into account technological advancements and the requirements of both parties." To achieve this goal, our respective agencies will meet in Nairobi within the next two weeks to advance discussions on the matter.
The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) submarine cable system, Branch S7, failed 206 kilometers from Da Nang in April 2023 and is scheduled to be repaired from June 23-29. The APG system previously experienced problems in late December 2022 (branch S6, off the Hong Kong landing station) and mid-January 2023 (branch S9, 151 km offshore); the S9 failure was repaired in late March 2023, while the repair of the S6 problem was delayed until May 2023.
Sparkle announced an agreement with UAE-based Kush Investments to provide a long-term solution for the Blue and Raman submarine cable systems that will soon serve the East Africa region. The agreement will provide Kush Investments with virtual fiber solutions connecting Mumbai (India) and Djibouti to Europe (via Palermo, Genoa, Marseille and Milan) and India (Mumbai), expanding Kush Investments' portfolio of assets in the ICT infrastructure sector and allowing the development of new business opportunities and projects in the telecommunications sector in East African countries. The Blue Cable system will connect Italy, France and the United States. The Blue cable system will connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel, while the Raman cable system will connect Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India. Blue will be deployed along a new northbound route in the Mediterranean, crossing the Strait of Messina, rather than along the traditional route through the Strait of Sicily. In the Blue System, Sparkle's own private BlueMed submarine cable will feature four additional fiber pairs, each with an initial design capacity of more than 25 Tbps; it will expand to Jordan (Aqaba) and in the future to France (Corsica), Greece (Hania, Crete), Italy (Sardinia and Rome), Algeria, Tunisia Libya, Turkey, Cyprus and other countries. The Tyrrhenian portion of BlueMed is scheduled to be operational soon, while Blue and Raman are expected to be ready for service in 2024 (RFS).
Lumen Technologies announced a new network interconnection ecosystem called ExaSwitch, created in partnership with Google and Microsoft. The platform enables organizations with high bandwidth requirements to dynamically and quickly route their traffic between networks without the need for third-party intervention. Participants will be able to connect their edge sites, data centers and central offices in key markets to gain diversity and save on cross-connect costs. Connectivity is set up in 400G increments and can be used in 100G increments on demand, enabling up to 25.6Tbps of optical cross-connectivity per site. Lumen currently operates the ExaSwitch platform in three U.S. interconnection centers (Chicago, Dallas and Virginia) and plans to expand to all major North American markets.
Liquid Dataport, a subsidiary of Liquid Intelligent Technologies (LIT), and Angola Telecom announced the opening of a new terrestrial fiber route between Luanda (Angola) and Johannesburg (South Africa), via the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Finally, Lightstorm Telecom is building a series of open cable landing stations (CLS) on the eastern and western coasts of India to establish new routes and provide "non-discriminatory" access to landing parties.
