The final part of the global telecom jig-saw? The 'da Gama cable system' which links Africa to Asia and Europe, is likely to be the last major investment on new global infrastructure for some time to come - Industry & Market Update

Telecommunications International, Sept, 2002 by Stephen McClelland

"It took Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese mariner, 251 days to journey from Europe to India in 1497," says Jean-Philippe Vanot, executive vice president of France Telecom Long Distance. "We can now do it in milliseconds."

And so opens the latest major intercontinental submarine cable project--a massive 28,000km system that follows do Gama's path and stretches all the way from Europe around Africa to Asia.

By itself, it is a remarkable piece of global telecom infrastructure. As the very first fibre-optic link for the African continent, it promises big things. In terms of external broadband connectivity, it almost single-handedly solves a key problem in the 'digital divide' for many countries on the route--access to external broadband connectivity. But ironically it comes at a time when the global infrastructure market in telecom is depressed, and many transoceanic and long-haul routes elsewhere are already overbuilt with too much capacity. It is the latest major submarine telecom project to be activated and, for the time being, it might also be the last.

The 'da Gama cable system', more properly (but incomprehensibly) called SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, extends from do Gama's Portugal to the southern point of Africa and up through the Indian Ocean to terminate in Malaysia. On the way, it has 16 landing points in 15 countries including Senegal and Cote d'lvoire, South Africa and India and even in tiny islands of Reunion (a department of mainland France) and Mauritius. In communications terms, the impact of a state-of-the-art cable system can hardly be overestimated. From having minimal international telecom facilities or relying an outdated or limited satellite systems, countries have seen bucket loads of bandwidth arrive on their doorstep courtesy of do Gama.

So this particular cable traces genuinely new terrain. Not only is it Africa's first continental-scale optical link to the outside world, but it is a major north-south initiative in a telecom world which has seen most routes built west-east and then mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. But in bridging what is undoubtedly a gap in telecom need, the US$640 m ([euro]653 m) project has a degree of irony, too. In the heat of telecom build worldwide, and, in particular, in the boom that saw the world's major business centres connected many times over by various carriers, it probably represented one of the least fashionable routes.

The consortium model

Unlike the private entrepreneurial operators that ultimately made a speculative build of facilities, the do Gama cable system has its roots in a traditional way of doing submarine telecom--the consortium model, where groups of operators get together, decided on capacity for their own use, and share the investment and operational costs. In this case, the consortium turned out to be a large one: 36 operators in partnership. Fortuitously, the cable system has been implemented and comes to service just at the time the private operators have seen their previously high-profile business models on major routes disintegrate.

But consortium partnerships still need major operators as drivers and lead investors. One of the major investors has been France Telecom, also ironic given that the cable does not directly terminate in mainland France. Nevertheless, it has also become a significant part of the unfolding France Telecom global network strategy. Bringing US$96 m ([euro]98 in), the France Telecom group is one of the largest investment sponsors of the system serving not only its own traffic needs in the region, but also those of France Telecom subsidiaries in West Africa and the Indian Ocean, such as Sonatel in Senegal, Mauritius Telecom in Mauritius and Cote d'lvoire Telecom in Cote d'lvoire.

"The system is pivotal in our global network," points out Jean-Philippe Vanot. For France Telecom, it is the last part of a formidable global network of collectively-owned and operated infrastructure that covers European terrestrial, trans-Atlantic and trans-pacific systems.

Impact on Africa

The cable connects ten African countries (mainly on Africa's west coast) and several have ingeniously configured local facilities to maximise cost-effectiveness. By contrast, telecom authorities on the east coast and in Madagascar have remained uninvolved, perhaps on grounds of cost--although consortia activities traditionally spread investment and operational expenditure. Perhaps it may reflect the relatively low enthusiasm for advanced infrastructure in parts of Africa even when superlative opportunities ore available.

The Indian Ocean has fared much better, and brings the islands of Reunion and Mauritius fully into the global telecom network. The French territory of Reunion, although equipped with modern infrastructure, has depended on communication with the outside world by satellite. However, Indian Ocean hurricanes hove always presented a problem. Hurricane Dina in January 2002 struck Reunion and forced France Telecom to place its satellite dishes in a 'safe' but inactive position effectively cutting off all communications with the island for a period of hours. Combined with natural volcanic activity on the island that has also in the recent past severed communications, the territory remained underserved, in spite of growing demand from several GSM networks and a growing base of ADSL users amongst the population of 700 000.