By SEACOM
SEACOM, the privately funded and over three quarter African owned submarine fibre optic cable system, was named “Best Pan African Initiative” at the AfricaCom Awards 2009 ceremony held in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday 11 November 2009. The award recognises an initiative taken by an organisation or a group of organisations to improve telecommunications services at a regional or continental level. The awards ceremony form part of the AfricaCom Congress, a yearly two day pan-African communications event attended by leading African operators, service providers, ministries, regulators and equipment and solutions providers in Africa.
Commenting on the award, Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, said:Â “SEACOM is honoured to have been recognised for its effort in bringing much needed bandwidth connectivity to east and southern Africa. With more and more countries getting connected to the rest of the world via the SEACOM system, it is only a matter of time before we see the direct socio-economic benefits that cheap and readily available bandwidth will have on the region.”
From inception to the final launch of its services, SEACOM has demonstrated that provided with an enabling environment, the private sector can efficiently mobilise the resources required to deliver complex and expansive projects for the benefit of all African people. The world has already witnessed the dramatic and countless life-altering developments borne out of the Web and Africa's development trajectory will be exponentially improved by the provision of information super-highways which form an important building block for Africa to build upon.