Bartamaha (Nairobi):-Cable has had to be rerouted by 400km to avoid areas associated with pirates.
Somali pirates and insecurity off the coast of East Africa will add $6 million to East Africa Submarine Cable System costs to lay its fiber optic cable to Kenya to improve Internet services, the Business Daily newspaper reports Tuesday.
“We have had to re-route the cable out by 400 kilometers to avoid running into areas associated with Somali pirates. The additional cost has been absorbed into the total costs for the project and we are on track to meet our April 1 Mombasa landing date,” the Kenyan daily quoted Chris Wood, chief executive of the West Indian Cable Company, or WIOCC, as saying.
WIOCC represents the consortium of African telcoms who own the largest share in EASSy, as the East African Submarine System is known.
Wood said the two ships from French contractor Alcatel-Lucent that EASSy is using to lay its cable each have teams of 24 highly trained French security forces on board to act as a deterrent against any piracy attempts, the daily said.
EASSy will be the third international fibre optic cable to land in Kenya
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Source: totaltele
