30 March 2020

PCCW Global and PEACE Cable International Network have partnered to extend the Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable system to southern Africa.

The PEACE South extension will boost bandwidth and have an important impact on connectivity from its current African landing point in Mombasa, Kenya, all the way to South Africa. This will open new Southern African Development Community (SADC) and east African markets to cable partners.

PEACE South will also provide alternative routes for existing systems, connecting southern Africa to Europe and Asia with newer, faster high-bandwidth technology and assisting the region to improve internet usage and reduce the cost of connectivity.

“Since the construction of Peace East and Peace Med are both expected to be completed on time, on budget and within the originally specified plan of work,” said Frederick Chui, chief commercial officer of PCCW Global. “The planned extension through Peace South is a natural expansion for Asian investment in Africa, enhancing cooperation and shared economic benefits in the exchange of goods, technology and ideas.”

The southern Africa extension follows the overall success of the cable development project and the smooth implementation of operations, from survey activities and the issuing of the relevant country permits through to manufacturing and factory acceptance.

When completed, the high-speed PEACE cable system will offer very low latency routes from China to both Europe and Africa, interconnecting three of the world’s most populous continents.

The news follows the announcements in September 2019 that PEACE, together with Liquid Telecom and Africa Data Centre, signed a landing party agreement (LPA) for a landing point in Kenya. It respectively signed a deal with PCCW Global and Orange to deploy the new PEACE Med subsea cable at a landing station in Marseille, southern France.