China Working on ‘Peace Subsea Cable’ To Link East Africa with South Asia

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

China Working on ‘Peace Subsea Cable’ To Link East Africa with South Asia

Jan. 31, 2018 (EIRNS)—A statement from China’s Huawei Marine reveals that it was completing a "desktop study" for a new submarine cable system, dubbed the "Peace Subsea Cable" whose first phase is meant to connect South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and Pakistan.

"Peace" in the Peace Subsea Cable is an acronym for "Pakistan East Africa Cable Express." The system was designed by a Chinese firm, Tropic Science, "to provide a new information expressway for interconnection among Asia, Africa, and Europe by connecting with existing land and subsea cables," according to the joint statement by Tropic Science and Huawei Marine. The report further explains that Huawei Marine would begin a marine survey on Jan. 15, with the Peace system expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The first phase will span some 6,200 km and would link Pakistan (Gwadar and Karachi) with Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya. The second phase would provide an "extended option" to South Africa and Europe with a total length of about 13,000 km, based on 200G dense wave-division multiplexing technology on a design capacity of 60tbs (terabits/s).

Tropic Science chairman He Liehui said the system will become "an important infrastructure for Asian, African and European intercontinental communications and promote economic development of the regions."