(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — India-based global telecommunications provider Tata Communications (www.tatacommunications.com) is participating in a $600 million submarine fibre-optic network that will link countries in Southern Africa, Western Africa and Europe, with at least 3.84 terabits per second of international bandwidth.
According to the company’s Thursday announcement, Tata joined a multinational consortium of leading telecommunications operators in signing a construction and maintenance agreement and supply contract for the implementation of the West Africa Cable System (known as WACS). This investment, according to Tata, will further boost its global reach and enhance the company’s investments in the region.
Expected to open for service by 2011, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (www1.alcatel-lucent.com) will be the supplier for the 14,000 km long cable system, which includes planned landing points in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, Portugal and the UK.
The WACS represents a significant telecommunications infrastructure investment through a joint effort of a number of African and global operators including Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Telecom Namibia, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Tata Communications, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.
WACS will provide ample capacity to serve the region’s international connectivity needs for many years, providing Africa faster and better connectivity to Europe and the world at far cheaper rates.
“We are very pleased to be participating in the West Africa Cable System. The investment is another step for Tata Communications in bolstering its capabilities in the African market, and will enhance our service propositions together with our partner Neotel in bringing added diversity into South Africa,” Tata Communications global transmission services senior vice president Byron Clatterbuck said in a statement.
As member of the $62.5 billion Tata Group, Tata’s communications branch is a leader in global communications, particularly in emerging markets, offering a wide range of services including transmission, Internet protocol transport, converged voice, mobility, managed network connectivity, hosting and storage, managed security, managed collaboration and business transformation.
A month ago, Tata Communications became an anchor tenant customer Africa’s SEACOM Cable System (www.seacom.mu), a $650 million deep water cable system, partly funded by east African nations and 75 percent owned by African nations. As an anchor tenant on the 9,320-long, undersea cable system, Tata Communications is able to provide fully integrated network services from South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya to its networks in Europe, Asia and India.
The news follows Tata’s February announcement of a $430 million strategic investment plan in the Asia Pacific region, which includes the completion of the main segment of its TGN-Intra Asia Cable System, a 4,200 mile system that links Japan and Singapore, with offshoots to Vietnam, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
