Seacom Goes Live on Google’s Equiano Cable

Seacom has gone live on Google’s Equiano cable following the subsea cable’s landing in Cape Town, South Africa, in August.By Admire Moyo, ITWeb
March 15, 2023

Telecommunications and managed services provider Seacom has gone live on Google’s Equiano cable following the subsea cable’s landing in Cape Town, South Africa, in August.

Seacom services via the cable will be available from today.

In a statement, Seacom says it offers private line services with latency speeds of +/-110ms between South Africa and Europe, making it the fastest direct route between the continents.

The new development comes after Seacom fulfilled the necessary equipment and installation requirements with the help of its technology partner, Infinera.

The cable now forms part of Seacom’s subsea cable ecosystem surrounding Africa, which is supported by a continent-wide IP-MPLS network.

Google officially unveiled its Equiano submarine internet cable in Cape Town in August – a large-scale initiative in which the tech giant has invested a total of $1 billion.

Announced in 2019, Africa’s highest-capacity subsea internet cable, which landed at Melkbosstrand north of Cape Town, starts in Western Europe and runs along the West Coast of Africa, between Portugal and SA. Branching units along the way can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries.

“This launch results from years of project negotiations and planning, driven by a goal to be ready to offer quality service to our customers from day one,” says Prenesh Padayachee, Seacom group chief digital officer.

“The Equiano subsea cable represents a new stage in Africa’s digital transformation, meeting Africa’s growing data requirements, enabling cross-border digital trade, and offering citizens and enterprises new opportunities.”

“Infinera is delighted to partner with Seacom to light the Equiano subsea cable with our ICE6 800G technology,” says Nick Walden, Infinera senior vice-president of worldwide sales.

“With the industry’s highest spectral efficiency, ICE6 enables Seacom to maximise the number of high-speed services they can offer, providing multiple terabits of capacity on this critical subsea link.”

The Equiano cable stretches 15 000km from Portugal to South Africa, has 12 fibre pairs and a design capacity of 144Tbps.

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