Major Pan-African telecommunications service provider, SEACOM, and Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, have joined forces to offer high-speed, reliable pathways between Africa, Europe and Asia to meet the growing demand for connectivity linking these regions.
Reflecting the increasing appetite for investment into Africa, this partnership allows SEACOM and Tata Communications to leverage each other’s regional and global networks to address enterprises’ connectivity requirements. SEACOM’s dedicated subsea cable system runs up the east coast of Africa and connects to India in Mumbai. Given Tata Communications’ strong presence in the Indian subcontinent, SEACOM customers can connect seamlessly onwards into business hubs such as Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore in Asia as well as Marseille, London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam in Europe, with Tata Communications’ wholly owned global Tier-1 Internet Protocol (IP) network.
Tata Communications will now leverage SEACOM to extend its IP and Global Dedicated Ethernet (GDE) service platforms into South Africa. SEACOM will support Tata Communications’ IP and GDE customers across Southern and East Africa. Well-positioned to take care of these customers, SEACOM has been extending its networks across the continent through its acquisition of FibreCo and the building of metro fibre in major city centres across Southern and East Africa.
Tata Communications will expand its IP backbone into South Africa to support its service provider customers at the Teraco data centre in Isando, Johannesburg. Tata Communications’ Tier-1 IP offerings will be available to support high-capacity and low-latency transit for customers with the company’s global IP network. This means that users can expect to see improvements in services across gaming, media streaming and other content coming out of the Middle East, India and Asia.
Byron Clatterbuck, Chief Executive Officer at SEACOM, comments, “There has been the technical capability to make this deal for years, but only recently has demand surged between Africa, India and the rest of Asia as a result of recognised market potential.” He adds, “As one of SEACOM’s primary objectives to help empower economies on the African continent through best-in-class connectivity and cloud solutions, we’re delighted to be working with Tata Communications to enable our customers’ borderless growth.”
Vaneet Mehta, Region Head, Middle East, Central Asia & Africa at Tata Communications, comments, “This partnership with SEACOM will help both companies to leverage each other’s digital infrastructure to provide customers with state-of-the-art technology services. It is the first step towards expanding our collaboration with SEACOM across areas such as the Internet, MPLS, Cloud, Media and Cybersecurity.”
Bringing together two world leaders in connectivity and ICT solutions, this partnership with Tata Communications is another move by SEACOM to expand its global footprint through strategic partnerships. It opens the door for the South African company to provide the capacity to Asian markets while ensuring African businesses are equipped to be competitive players in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
