FIBRE OPTIC CONNECTION REMAINS ON TRACK
Information was received from Mahe overnight that a meeting of contractors and project promoters established that the planning for the laying of the fibre optic cable was on track and on time. Work is expected to commence in February 2012, when a specially equipped ocean vessel will begin the sink the cable, which will link the present fibre optic network along the East African seaboard in Dar es Salaam with the Seychelles. Work it expected to take several weeks before the cable is due to reach Mahe by mid 2012 but the system is only thought to go operational, after a successful testing phase, in the last quarter of next year.
The connection, promoted by the Government of Seychelles in conjunction with Cable and Wireless as well as Airtel, is due to connect Seychelles to the information superhighway with superfast speeds, which fibre optic can guarantee compared to the much slower and capacity restricted satellite up- and downlinks.
The nearly 30 million Euro cost is underwritten by the members of the consortium and has been co-financed by the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank.
Once complete, even tourists are due to benefit from much faster and much cheaper connections for both voice and data traffic and is likely to increase the Seychelles visibility on the world wide web even further.
