East African Submarine Cable System

The EASSy project consists of the construction of around 10 000 km fiber optic submarine cable along the East African coast, linking Sudan to South Africa with landing points in these countries as well as in Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique.In addition, discussions are underway to extend the cable to the Comoros Archipelago. EASSy will be the first optical fiber connection for these countries to the global optical fiber network. In a related project, EASSy signatories are working on the development of the terrestrial backhauls to link the land-locked countries of the region to the cable (notably Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho).

Objectives

EASSy will complete the missing part of an optical fiber ring around Africa (the Western part of the ring being referred to as SAT-3, consisting of a cable under the Atlantic Ocean that hauls from Europe to South Africa) and will connect Eastern Africa not only to SAT-3 but also to other modern international submarine systems. EASSy is critical for the economic development of Eastern and Southern Africa, as it will provide reliable, fast, and widespread access to international communication (including Internet) and is expected to bring the costs of international telecommunications and Internet connectivity down to competitive levels that are similar to those found in other developing countries such as, for instance, India.
Countries in Eastern Africa currently rely fully on satellite connections, that have inherent delays and do not offer competitive pricing conditions, thereby preventing a large part of Africa's population from having adequate access to international telecommunication and Internet services.

Comments

Communications Infrastructure.

Sector(s)

Telecom

Proposed EIB finance

Up to EUR 40 million.

Total cost

Estimated by the promoter to be US$ 235 million (EUR 172 million).

Environmental aspects

The submarine component of the project is expected to have a minor impact on sensitive marine ecosystems, assuming that industry best practices and the mitigation measures recommended by Environmental Impact Assessments specifically prepared for the project are adopted during implementation. The terrestrial interfaces will be standard telecom projects without permanent impact. Overall the project is qualified as acceptable with minor reservation.

Procurement

EASSy followed a restricted tender procedure for the procurement of the main contract of the project, which is the submarine cable system turnkey supply and installation. The main industry players were involved in the process. The contract has been signed in March 2007 with the best-ranked bidder and world's top supplier. The procurement process followed appears to have been competitive in the context of this specific industry and therefore in the interest of the project and promoter.

Status

Approved - 27/09/2007.