By SEACOM
SEACOM is proud to announce that it has joined forces with Tata Communications to provide the critical international capacity to the broadcasters of the 2010 FIFA World Cup which kicks-off in South Africa on 11 June 2010.
Through this partnership, licensed FIFA broadcasters are able to purchase a fully diverse and configured route running through the SEACOM and SAT-3 undersea cable systems along the east and west coasts of Africa respectively. Whilst offering the highest degree of backup to meet the stringent service levels of FIFA, the network also enables customers to connect directly from the International Broadcast Centre in Johannesburg to London or any of the 200 countries across 400 Points of Presence on the Tata Communications Global Network.
Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, commented: “Having gone live in July 2009, SEACOM was able to play a key role in ensuring that broadcasters at the 2010 FIFA World Cup will benefit from a fully diverse route offering that not only meets FIFA’s stringent requirements but also ensures that South Africa is able to deliver world class quality and meet the heavy data requirements expected during an event of this magnitude.”
The partners expect that a significant portion of international capacity used by FIFA broadcasters will be carried through their joint event network. With an increase in the number of mobile and internet users as well as more data intensive applications such as High Definition TV, Facebook and YouTube, this event will see a marked increase from the 2006 World Cup which already moved a record 21 terabytes of voice and data traffic for the teams, FIFA officials, local organisers, media and other event partners. Putting this into perspective using average values equals to over 7 million mp3s, 2.5 million PDF books, 2.2 million high resolution digital pictures or 22 000 full length movies.
“As the European public turns to South Africa for the much anticipated World Cup, it is going to be critical that content delivery is faultless, ensuring that Europe does not miss out on the action. We are pleased to be supporting this event via our extensive network that connects Europe to South Africa. All our customers will be provided with a fully diverse turnkey solution,” concluded Claude Sassoulas, Managing Director Europe and Africa, Tata Communications.