Telecom Egypt, the country’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in the region, and the St. Helena Government (SHG) have announced that the connectivity of the Island via the Equiano subsea cable system is now live. St. Helena is now connected to the rest of the world for the first time, marking a crucial step towards the Island’s economic growth.
SHG is currently working to ensure that the Island can fully leverage the full potential of the cable and start using the new connectivity path as soon as possible. This includes the construction of a new Island-wide domestic network to plug into the Equiano landing station terminal, which will enable it to deliver fiber-based high speed and a full package of benefits to both homes and businesses.
The branch connecting St. Helena to the rest of Telecom Egypt’s system on Equiano is 1,140km long. The cable runs from the West Coast of Africa and provides St. Helena with access to both Portugal and South Africa with scalable connectivity. The initial configuration is based on 400G lambda using the Nokia 1830 PSE-Vs (7nm) chipset and is ready to be upgraded in the future with the latest PSE-6S (5nm) chipset towards multi-terabit connectivity. It, therefore, provides the most cost-efficient solution that caters to the growth in the Island’s bandwidth needs.
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Considering its vast experience in the subsea connectivity business, Telecom Egypt, in conjunction with SHG, provides a Dynamic Circuit Network functionality, which will ensure that SHG’s communication partners have access to fixed bandwidth. Telecom Egypt has also supported SHG in the design, installation and configuration of the subsea and network equipment.
St. Helena’s Minister for Treasury, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development, Mark Brooks, said, “We are thrilled to witness this historic moment. This will offer opportunities for significantly faster internet connectivity speeds and bandwidth for the first time, assuring a better quality of life for people and businesses in St. Helena.”
Meanwhile, Mohamed Nasr, managing director and chief executive officer at Telecom Egypt, said, “Equiano marks Telecom Egypt’s first endeavor in West Africa, with St. Helena being a step forward in the company’s plans to expand its services beyond the MENA region and into new territories, thereby fortifying its international presence by providing subsea solutions to global partners.”
Pierre Chaume, vice president of North and West Africa at Nokia, added, “Our scalable technology will futureproof the network, as and when the demand increases, to further drive the economic growth of the Island.”
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