LAHORE: The marine survey for the PEACE submarine cable has now been initiated announced Huawei Marine.
This submarine cable which is expected to be active by end of 2019 will have over 60 Tb capacity and is expected to stretch to Africa and Europe.
It is named PEACE (Pakistan East Africa Cable Express) and is a joint venture between Huawei Technologies and Global Marine Systems Limited, Huawei Marine Networks.
In its first phase, PEACE will comprise a 6,200km network connecting Pakistan (in Gwadar and Karachi), Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya. It will eventually span 13,000km, reaching South Africa and Egypt.
Huawei Marine in partnership with EGS Ltd. is carrying out a hydrographic and geophysical survey of the seabed along the planned cable route.
The company’s specialized survey vessel the RV Ridley Thomas has reached the region to start offshore survey operations.
Zhang Hongxiang, project director for Huawei Marine said: “Implementation of the PEACE project has reached another important milestone which testament to our project delivery capabilities as Huawei Marine continues to provide efficient, high-quality network solutions for our customers. Our 200G WDM technology that will be deployed in the PEACE cable system will support the rapid development of the East African regional economy and facilitate connectivity between Asia, Africa and Europe”.
Chris Welsh, CEO of EGS Survey Group stated: “It is a great honour for us to participate in the PEACE submarine cable system project and work once again in partnership with Huawei Marine. EGS brings more than 25 years of extensive cable route survey experience and adheres to the highest professional standards. We are delighted to contribute to the construction of the new information highway.”
According to sources, Pakistan’s leading cellular provider Jazz and internet service provider (ISP) Cybernet have been shortlisted as the intended landing parties for the PEACE cable in Pakistan.
Recently a high-level conference organized by PCCW Global, PEACE and Huawei Marine held in Dubai was attended by all the leading international landing parties, which was said to be a major success.
This system, designed by Chinese company Tropic Science, depends on 200G dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology – used to increase bandwidth on fibre networks by transmitting multiple signals at once, at different wavelengths but on the same fibre.
The system was designed to deliver a capacity of up to 60Tbps.
Currently, Pakistan is served by six submarine cables and has suffered frequent internet outages which have left services crippled across the country in the recent past.
In July and August 2017, the severing of two leading submarine cables which form the backbone of Pakistan’s internet bandwidth led to a major slowdown of services across the country.
With the PEACE cable expected to come online by end of 2019, the country’s internet connectivity and backup will receive a major boost, leading to less frequent outages and disruption of services.
Not only will the addition of PEACE cable overhaul the country’s internet infrastructure, but the reliability of services and will also reduce dependence on other submarine cables in case of their severance.
