St Helena Taps Telecom Egypt for Subsea Connectivity Via Equiano

One of the more remote spots in the world is a step closer to getting its own subsea fiber connection. The St Helena Government and Telecom Egypt have signed an agreement that will give the island in the South Atlantic that will connect Telecom Egypt’s network across a planned new branch of the Equiano system.

St. Helena is, as history buffs will remember, the place that Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to after Waterloo and where he died in 1821. It was discovered (really, it was uninhabited) by the Dutch and in the 175h century became part of the East India Company and later on the British empire. The island remains a British Overseas Territory with a population of less than 5,000.

The project has been in the works for a couple of years. The idea has been to add another 1140km of fiber from the Equiano system to connect the island. Equiano will stretch along the western coast of Africa up to Portugal. There were also plans to connect SAEx to the island, but I haven’t heard much from that project recently. Equiano is a Google project, and hence looks more likely to hook up the island at this point.  The original target date was the second half of 2021, but it looks as if early 2022 is more likely now.

 

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Categories: Undersea cables