Private undersea cables rewarded

SEACOM and Main One were awarded “Best Pan African Initiative” at the AfricaCom Awards 2011 ceremony. The award recognises an initiative taken by an organisation to improve telecommunications services at a regional or continental level.
SEACOM and Main One, the only two privately funded and open-access basednAfrican submarine fibre optic cable systems, were awarded “Best Pan AfricannInitiative” at the AfricaCom Awards 2011 ceremony held in Cape Town, SouthnAfrica, on Wednesday 9 November 2011. The award, which was also won by SEACOMnin 2009, recognises an initiative taken by an organisation or a group ofnorganisations to improve telecommunications services at a regional orncontinental level.
Commenting on the award, Mark Simpson, SEACOM CEO, said: “We arenhonoured to be recognised once again for our efforts in continuously extendingnpan-African connectivity by investing in infrastructure, products and servicesnthat meet the continent’s insatiable demand for bandwidth.
“This partnership shows our determination to find viable ways to extendnour system with partners who share our vision of building the African Internetnon an open and equitable basis.”
Main One and SEACOM announced in May 2011 that they had interconnectedntheir west and east African cable systems to launch capacity services from PoPnto PoP, from a STM-1 level and above. This partnership extends the Main One andnSEACOM networks to create a system that offers connection between any SEACOMnand Main One PoPs all around Africa.
Funke Opeke, Main One CEO, explained: “Through this partnership, SEACOMnand MainOne have extended their individual cable systems to the opposite coastsnof Africa without the efforts required to construct brand new routes.
“The ability to connect the east and west coast of the continentndirectly results in improved throughput but also provides a system around mostnof the continent which provides improved redundancy for telecommunicationsnoperators.”
Now in its fourth year, the awards are a serious recognition of thencommitment and professionalism of these finalists to their core business and tonchanging the landscape of the continent, for the better. The ceremony formsnpart of the AfricaCom conference, a pan-African communications event now in itsn14th year, which is attended by leading African operators, service providers,nministries, regulators and equipment and solutions providers in Africa. For moreninformation on the awards, please visit http://www.africacomawards.com.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza