Alcatel-Lucent has won a $240 million contract to construct a 10,000 km long undersea telecom cable around East Africa. The submarine cable, which is expected to substantially reduce the cost of phone calls in the continent, will initially link eight countries from Sudan to South Africa via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique. It will deliver a regional capacity of 320 Gbps, allowing consumers to also benefit from more accessible and affordable broadband internet services. The project was earlier held back due to disagreements between the Kenyan and South African governments over financing and ownership issues. However, the project is now expected to be completed by end-2008.
