Seacom starts operating on new Google cable

SA-based undersea cable provider Seacom has begun operating on Google’s newly completed Equiano cable.

The company aims to entice customers with a direct line between SA and Europe, enabling faster international internet communication.

Founded in 2009, the fibre network operator connects SA’s internet traffic to Europe via its Eastern African undersea cable and holds about 25% of the wholesale fibre market locally, competing with companies such as Telkom, Vodacom and Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

Seacom said on Wednesday it had begun offering services through the Equiano cable, which landed in SA in 2022 and is Africa’s highest-capacity subsea internet cable. Google is the main funder of the cable, which runs from Portugal along the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. Its arrival in SA is in partnership with Telkom’s infrastructure unit, Openserve.

Seacom offers private line services with low latency of about 110 milliseconds between SA and Europe “making it the fastest direct route between the continents”.

The company, with shareholders such as Sanlam and Remgro, sells internet data capacity on its networks to businesses, internet service providers and mobile operators on a wholesale basis.

As part of the service available to wholesale and enterprise clients from March, the company will offer a direct route from Cape Town to Lisbon. “This means clients will enjoy highspeed connectivity without having their data rerouted to other countries during transmission,” said the company.

The cable now forms part of Seacom’s subsea cable ecosystem surrounding Africa. This system now competes against 2Africa, a huge development led by Facebook parent, Meta.

Undersea cables are a strategic asset for telecom and internet companies.

According to a regional economic impact assessment by Africa Practice, commissioned by Google and published in 2021, the Equiano cable will increase SA’s GDP by $5.8bn (R103bn) and create 180,000 indirect jobs by 2025.

“With the help of Infinera as our long-standing partner and equipment provider for our backhaul network in SA, Seacom has positioned itself as the go-to pan-African telecommunications provider with direct access to the European market,” said Prenesh Padayachee, Seacom group chief digital officer.

“The Equiano subsea cable serves as an alternative route to and from the continent. This means we can accommodate even greater volumes of data traffic and ensure greater uptime availability.

“Clients can rest easy with the assurance that the available capacity will match their future growth plans and deliver highperformance results.”