Landing of the PEACE submarine cable system in Seychelles – Second project |08 March 2022

 Second submarine cable to ensure country’s security of connectivity

Seychelles is no longer an isolated group of islands in the Indian Ocean, but rather part of the global community, Vice-President Ahmed Afif, who also holds the portfolio for communication, has said.

He made the statement yesterday afternoon during the official landing of the second submarine cable – Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) – which is expected to be fully operational in May.

The project promoter – the Seychelles Cable Systems Company Limited (SCS) – is a private-public partnership undertaking made up of telecommunication companies Airtel and Cable & Wireless Seychelles (CWS) and the Seychelles government, through the department of information communications technology (DICT).

Other than being a back-up plan, the second cable will also be a boost in achieving the goal of security in the country’s international telecommunications link.

The first cable – the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS) submarine cable – which presently links Beau Vallon with Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, entered commercial service in August 2012.

Yesterday’s ceremony took place at Persévérance – where the cable lands – in the presence of President Wavel Ramkalawan, Minister for Finance, Economic Planning and Trade Naadir Hassan, members of the diplomatic corps, principal secretary for DICT Benjamin, along with executives and staff of Airtel, and Cable & Wireless Seychelles.

VP Afif noted that the project has been entirely funded by the SCS at a cost of US $20 million (R280 million).

He said the optical submarine cable system is a critical infrastructure for any form of communication, as well as all sectors of our economy, and that the majority of the world’s communications flow through fibre optic.

VP Afif explained that with only one submarine cable system, Seychelles is always vulnerable in the eventuality of failure, while PEACE will give us greater peace of mind.

He further added that Seychelles will now have a fully redundant system, with PEACE providing an alternative international connectivity.

VP Afif additionally noted that in terms of performance, PEACE is superior to SEAS, with a lit capacity of 100Gbps on day 1 to Marseille and 100Gbps to Mombasa, while the design capacity of the Seychelles branch – with no upgrade – is 800Gbps.

He also noted that among the various things that the Covid-19 pandemic taught us is that connectivity to one another has never been more essential.

He added that the government is engaging with the SCS and the licensed operators in order to bring quality and affordable internet services to the majority of the population.

“The challenge and the expectation now are on the telecommunication service providers to deliver and provide customers with more capacity, faster and affordable connectivity services,” he added.

Still during yesterday’s ceremony, seven local technicians received their certificates from Chinese Ambassador to Seychelles Guo Wei after successfully completing a technical training in the operation, maintenance and troubleshooting of the new facility.

They are Melvin Camille, Errol Belle, Perry Freminot (Airtel), David Palmyre, Terrence Payet (Cable & Wireless), Andrew Monthy and Terry Adonis (DICT).

With the coming into operation of the PEACE system soon, the country will also have redundancy in its international submarine cable connectivity and thereby provide the much needed security in connection to the country.

It is to note that for the first cable project, the system builder was the Alcatel Submarine Networks from France, while this time around it is HNM Technologies from China.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the cable landing ceremony yesterday.

Roland Duval

Photos by Louis Toussaint