Mar 19, 2009 : Tata Tenant of SEACOM Cable System

📅 March 19, 2009 - Telecommunications provider Tata Communications (tatacommunications.com -> bigrock.in) announced on Thursday that the company is an anchor tenant customer on the privately owned SEACOM Cable System (seacom.mu).

Owned 75 percent by African nations, the $650 million deepwater cable is partly funded by nations along the east African coast.

As anchor tenant 9,320 miles on the undersea SEACOM cable system enables Tata Communications to provide fully integrated network services from South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya to its networks in Europe, Asia and India.

The news follows last month announcement by Tata Communications where the company unveiled its $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.

The 4,200 mile TGN-Intra Asia Cable System links Japan and Singapore, with offshoots to Vietnam, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

In a recent TMC.net article, Don Schuett, Tata Communications' director of product management in transmission services, explains that before SEACOM was constructed, many of African nations had to depend solely on limited, expensive satellite services to connect with the rest of the world.

The SEACOM will significantly improve the lives of east Africans by giving them access to more affordable, higher bandwidth IP and transmission services, says Schuett.

Tata Communications' subsidiary, Tata Communications Transformation Services Limited, has signed an agreement to provide the network administration, operations and maintenance of the cable supporting 1.28 Tbps of capacity.

Using SEACOM, Tata Communications will be able to expand the reach of the Tata Global Network to destinations on the East Coast of Africa.

"Through this major infrastructure build-out and our expertise in undersea cable operations, Tata Communications is uniquely positioned to provide efficient and experienced management," says Byron Clatterbuck, senior vice president of global transmission services at Tata Communications. "As a truly global service provider, we are able to provide end-to-end solutions in India, Europe and South Africa, as well as onward connectivity to major business destinations in the United States and Asia."

SEACOM and Tata Communications are planning for the system to be ready for service by June 2009.