Cable Makes Big Promises For African Internet

[sunnyd]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/22/seacom.on/index.html

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- A undersea cable plugging East Africa into high speed Internet access went live Thursday providing an alternative to expensive satellite connections.

SEACOM, the cable provider company, opened up its 17000 kilometer submarine cable, capable of 1.28 terabytes per second, allowing the region true connectivity.

Most Africans rely on expensive and slow satellite connections, which make the use of applications such as YouTube and Facebook extremely trying.

"This is going to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa, within Africa and with international parties" said Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM spokesman in South Africa.