$425 Million Undersea cable linking Asia, Europe and Africa lands in Kenya

Telkom Kenya and the PEACE (Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe) Cable Company have announced the landing of a new undersea cable in Mombasa.

The new cable connects France to Pakistan via the Europe-Asia route, and Mombasa, Kenya, via an Indian Ocean route, providing the most direct connectivity route from Asia and East Africa to Europe, as well as reducing existing communication delays between the continents.

The 15,000km long PEACE cable will give Kenya a strategic boost with respect to more flexible digital connection options, including high-speeds of 200 Gbps per single wavelength with a total capacity of 192Tbps, as well as stable and secure data access possibilities. Further, the continued growth in consumer demand for connectivity and data will unlock new markets for co-location data centers, content development networks and Over-the-Top service providers in the country.

The PEACE Cable is the sixth submarine cable to land in Kenya, preceded by the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE 1), SEACOM, The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and the Lower Indian Ocean NetWork II (LION II). 

PEACE’s second phase will see the cable extend to Singapore and Southern Africa, boosting bandwidth and connectivity from its current African landing point in Mombasa, all the way to South Africa, consequently opening new markets to cable partners in East Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

What they said:

Telkom’s CEO, Mr. Mugo KIBATI said, “The investment in submarine cables is of strategic importance to Telkom, where we view access to the Internet as a fundamental human right. Interest in this kind of delivery infrastructure is growing due to the sharp increase in the demand of Internet services including: cloud computing, streaming, gaming, connected devices, and also taking into account the customer’s demand for seamless service provision with no interruption. We are therefore proud to contribute to Kenya’s strategic evolution to become a digital economy, in line with the country’s Big 4 Agenda that relies on ICTs to enhance processes, improve efficiencies, and boost consistency in service delivery to Kenyans.” 

He adds, “This ultra-high capacity Cable will assist Kenya and the region in meeting its current and future broadband capacity requirements, bolster redundancy, minimise transit time of our country’s connectivity to Asia and Europe, as well as assist carriers in providing affordable services to Kenyans. This is in line with our long-term goal of effectively addressing the digital transformation being witnessed in Kenya and the region, as we seek to become the technology partner of choice in these markets.”

The PEACE Cable’s Chief Operating Officer, SUN Xiaohua said, “We are very proud to work with such an excellent partner as Telkom to jointly complete this successful landing in Kenya. PEACE will bring more diversified digital connection options and provide high-speed, large-capacity and stable data access opportunities to Kenya in the future. We will spare no efforts with PEACE to bring more business development to this region.”