The construction of EASSy, WIOCC’s East African Submarine Cable System, is complete and promises to bring cheaper more affordable international bandwidth pricing to South Africa.

Just last year Seacom completed construction of their underwater fibre cable and soon after that they went live bringing the first true competition to the SAT3 undersea cable system that for long had the monopoly.

The final splice which joins the two segments of the EASSy cable took place a few days ahead of schedule at 00:40 in the early hours of Monday 19th of April 2010.

Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC said: “Now that this critical stage of the project has been completed successfully and ahead of time, we will start system testing almost immediately. Once this is finalised, we are looking forward to connecting our first customers to the network from July 2010.”

The key difference between EASSy and the other undersea fiber cables currently providing South Africa with Internet access is that EASSy deliver connectivity to Europe via a direct line through the Red and Mediterranean seas ensuring for faster and shorter distances for data to travel to reach European countries.

“EASSy’s affordable pricing and open access structure also promise to revolutionise many African markets, bringing flexible, cost-effective international connectivity to fixed line, mobile and data network operators and ISPs throughout east, central and southern Africa”. According to James Wekesa, WIOCC’s Chief Commercial Officer

It’s great to see another cable nearing completion and getting ready to launch, who knows before the end of the year we may have uncapped unshaped bandwidth with low content ratio’s for under a R100. What do you think? Will the EASSy cable contribute further to lower broadband prices in South Africa?

Seacom the new undersea cable operator bringing more bandwidth to Africa has officialy launched their blog today. Users can visit the blog for up to date news about the Seacom cable.

The site is not only a blog but contains galleries about the contruction of the cable and the landing stations. There is also a forum available where any user can discuss anything from bandwidth usage to investment opertunities. The site also boasts a application to help get your ISP on the bandwagon for cheaper international bandwidth, you simply fill out the questions and Seacom will contact your ISP regarding access on the cable.

Users can also follow seacom via twitter @SeacomLive Check out the Seacom Blog Here