Seacom and Mozambique sign fibre-optic agreement

Broadband provider Seacom has signed a master services agreement with Mozambican telecommunications service provider Telecomunicações de Moçambique, Seacom said on Wednesday.

Seacom said the agreement would give the company and its customers access to the largest and most distributed fibre-optic network in Mozambique, as well as a diverse route into Zimbabwe and an additional border presence in Malawi and South Africa.

Seacom is best known for its submarine fibre-optic network system, which was launched on July 23 2009. This network directly connects South Africa and eastern Africa with Europe and southern Asia, covering a distance of more than 17 000km.

Customers in Zimbabwe would be able to connect to the Seacom system in Maputo, Mozambique, via Mutare in Zimbabwe, according to Seacom.

Seacom also said the additional route through Mozambique would complement Seacom’s existing route through South Africa via Beit Bridge and provide Zimbabwean customers with resiliency (maintaining an acceptable level of service during faults and challenges to normal operation) and redundancy (backup systems).

“This agreement with Telecomunicações de Moçambique demonstrates our commitment to partner with established players to improve the range of service to customers while continuously expanding the reach of Seacom’s low-cost services into landlocked countries across the region,” said Seacom chief executive Brian Herlihy.—I-Net Bridge