SUBMARINE CABLE CUTS FORCES TEAMS TO LAY NEW RESTORATION CABLE

The east African marine cable TEAMS, has announced that it will be lay a cable to connect Mombasa to Djibouti as a restoration cable. According to TEAMS cable general manager Joel Tanui the cable will result to better restoration with little latency while at the same time offer cheaper rates. This follows a series of submarine cable cuts mostly as a result of shipping activities “The restoration cable will be connecting Mombasa via land through Ethiopia to Djibouti to minimize cases of outages while providing the best quality service.” Joel Tanui, General Manager TEAMS. Tanui says the route has been chosen after deliberations on which route would provide the lowest delays while at the same time giving the best onward connectivity. TEAMS has said that the cost of rerouting through Mombasa has proved expensive while Djibouti offers less latency and a better onward connectivity as most cables rerouting to Europe pass by the Horn of Africa state. The cable to be laid by the Kenyan transmission cable laying company KENTRACO will involve using electric infrastructure to lay the cable instead of laying underground cables.The work is expected to begin once funds are sourced either from the universal service fund through the Communication Commission of Kenya or through other shareholders. This announcement comes even as the cable continues to experience outage forcing it re reroute following a cable cut on the 26 of April just after suffering another in March where a ship carrying out dredging works at the Mombasa port. The new line will also locally connect Nanyuki to Moyale.. In the meantime the company says it has interim plans that will see partners provide stable links between the two towns before a line is complete in 6 months. Tanui says the new line is also part of the company’s strategy as it targets Somalia in the near future and expects the line to Djibouti be complete in between 24 to 36 months.