Seychelles achieves security in international connectivity: PEACE operational in Seychelles |06 January 2023

Landing of PEACE system in Seychelles (March 2022)

Monday March 7, 2022 marked a historic day in Seychelles when the country welcomed its second submarine fibre optic cable landing at Ile Perseverance.

The landing itself was marked with an inauguration by the Vice-President, Ahmed Afif, who also holds the ICT ministerial portfolio.

This ceremony also included the opening of SCS House, which serves as the Cable Landing Station for the PEACE system, by the President of the Republic, Wavel Ramkalawan.

The Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) project is a 15,000 kilometre high-capacity submarine cable that connects Pakistan, Seychelles, Kenya, Djibouti and France.

In 2018, the Seychelles Cable Systems Co. Ltd (SCS) signed a contract with Huawei Marine Networks (now HMN Tech) for the construction of a branch on the PEACE cable system to connect the Seychelles.

The laying of the PEACE system was completed in October 2022. Local team has been running tests on the system along with its supporting consultants and specialists from the manufacturer of the system, HUAWEI. All the tests were completed successfully and all the other requirements, such as marine maintenance cover, were satisfied. Operators in Seychelles could, as from November 16, 2022, start making use of PEACE for carrying their traffic.

The coming into operation of the PEACE system in Seychelles marks a key milestone in the telecommunication development of the country; that of ensuring that there is resiliency in our international connectivity through submarine cables. Currently, and apart from satellite connections, Seychelles is linked to the outside world via the single SEAS cable that was commissioned by SCS over 10 years ago. In addition to ensuring resiliency in international connectivity, PEACE also makes more capacity available to the country.

The Seychelles Cable Systems Co. Ltd (SCS) is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that was created over a decade ago to build and operate the first submarine cable system to physically connect Seychelles to the rest of the world. The company comprises the Government of Seychelles, Cable & Wireless Seychelles and AIRTEL Seychelles and the Seychelles East-Africa System (SEAS) cable was partly financed through equity and loans from African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The PEACE project has been self-financed by SCS itself.

Press release from the Seychelles Cable Systems Co. Ltd (SCS)