PCCW Global, Orange, and PEACE Cable International, a leading international submarine cable operator, reached agreement to deploy the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable system.
PEACE will be a 12,000km ultra-low latency cable system connecting three of the largest and most populous continents in the world – Asia, Africa and Europe. The backbone of the project will interconnect Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France, with additional planned landing points and extensions. Completion is targeted for 2021.
In terms of the cooperation, Orange will supply and operate the cable landing station in Marseille, as well as linking the system to one of the city’s major data centers – creating a connectivity gateway across Europe and on to the Americas through existing transatlantic networks.
Mr. Marc Halbfinger, Chief Executive Officer, PCCW Global, said, “Our collaboration with Orange is a critically important step towards bringing PEACE online and we trust the capabilities and vast experience of their teams in France to provide a successful and timely delivery of the European leg of the project. Orange has vast experience in submarine cable infrastructure development. So we are confident that Orange will not only successfully provide the necessary cable infrastructure in France, but also benefit from being one of the first major users of the PEACE cable to connect important and growing traffic from Africa to Europe.”
Telecom Egypt signs PEACE subsea cable
Telecom Egypt entered agreements enabling the Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) subsea cable system to cross Egypt through new diversified terrestrial routes between the Zafarana and Abou Talat cable landing stations, where Telecom Egypt will provide PEACE with brand new state of the art landing facilities. The total value of the agreement amounts to US$45 million over the lifetime of the cable.
In addition, PEACE will be granted an additional fiber pair to its redundant cross Egypt routes to accommodate PEACE extensive demand to Europe with a total value of US$20 million. China-based HENGTONG OPTIC-ELECTRIC, which is a backer of PEACE, has also agreed to provide Telecom Egypt with fiber optic cables of different cores based on competitive pricing. This cabling will be used in Telecom Egypt’s strategic plans for fiber deployment inside Egypt.
PEACE is a 12,000 km long cable system with landings in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France.
Huawei Marine advances PEACE subsea cable project
The Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) Cable project, which will connect Asia, Africa and Europe, has entered into the cable and material manufacturing stage.
The PEACE cable system will span 12,000 km and is designed for 200G, 16Tbps per fiber pair connectitivity. The ready for service date is targetted for first quarter of 2020.
The project is being developed by PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s HENGTONG Group. Huawei Marine Network is lead contractor.
Sun Xiaohua, Chief Operating Officer of PEACE Cable said, “PEACE Cable has created a new business model in the submarine cable industry that builds a bridge for these regions communications and provides connectivity opportunities to players all along the route by investing in the branches and gaining bandwidth on the trunk in a more efficient way.”
