Today, Huawei Marine announced its inception of the Marine Survey and Desk Study work. The key investor backing up Huawei on this project is Tropic Science Co., Ltd., and the conjunction aims at constructing the PEACE (Pakistan East Africa Cable Express) submarine cable.
The cable connects East Africa with South Asia and the construction is to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2019. The cable is planned to be created for a length of 13,000 km.
Specifically, the cable will connect Pakistan of South Asia, Djibouti, and Kenya of East Africa. Furthermore, there will be expansions – towards the north of Africa to Egypt and towards the south from Kenya.
The cable will additionally facilitate the connectivity between Pakistan and China. This addition will be incorporated into existing terrestrial cable networks and will ‘create the shortest route from China to Europe via Africa.
On the whole, the network topology will reduce the length of the existing networks by up to 50%. After completion of the project, the routes will be more cost-effective and diverse than now – which will further make things eased in terms of the gradual growth of demands in businesses between the 3 continents – Asia, Europe, and Africa.
According to Tropical Science, the market capacity of Africa is ‘more attractive than other parts of the world because of the escalating developments of the networks in the continent. The attractiveness can also be credited to the rapid growth in the number of internet users in Africa. Considering these, the PEACE submarine cable will enhance the telecommunication aspects and social and economic developments in East Africa.
Mao Shengjiang, the COO of Huawei Marine, said, “We are pleased to commence work on this important project to ensure a timely delivery programme. Our customer-centric focus, commitment to quality, and on-time delivery is a hallmark of our company values. I would like to thank Tropical Science and our other partners for their trust in Huawei Marine.
The PEACE submarine cable project was signed in October, by Huawei Marine, Tropic Science, China Construction Bank, and China-ASEAN Information Harbor. The MOU (memorandum of understanding) was signed at the 3rd Asia Pacific Submarine Networks Forum.