Sudan's fixedline operator Canar Telecommunication Company today confirmed a multi-million dollar investment in Reliance Infocomm's Falcon submarine cable system, apart from being the cable's landing partner at Port Sudan. Canar has also purchased capacity on the fibre optic cable, which is owned by Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm.
This follows an official signing ceremony during the ITU World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Canar. This follows similar agreements with leading telecommunications operators in Bahrain, Egypt, India, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Qatar, Flag Telecom said in a release here today.
Falcon will become the first cable system to land in Sudan and will enable Canar to enhance the level and quality of services and provide infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for roll-out of broadband services and e-commerce applications.
"The cable system will provide international infrastructure needed for Sudan to leap several generations of technology and deliver a true 21st century network for our country and customers. Port Sudan will be the first East Africa landing station for the cable, which will provide high-availability connectivity between Sudan and the key business centres and Internet Exchanges around the world," Canar managing director Saood Al Juneibi said.
According to Flag Telecom president (Middle East and Africa) Walid Irshaid, "Falcon would unlock broadband opportunity in a region previously undeserved by international connectivity, bringing a many-fold increase in capacity over existing regional links. It will enable Canar to roll out advanced communication services and with very high levels of network reliability."
The cable, a new high-capacity resilient loop cable system, is being installed to provide multiple landings throughout the Gulf, with submarine links stretching from the Middle East to Egypt in the west and to India in the east.
The cable would further take an eastward journey from India. In India, it will interconnect with Reliance's 80,000 km-long domestic infrastructure.
It is being built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and is being installed in simultaneous sections using several submarine cable laying ships. Initial service on the cable is scheduled to commence by the fourth quarter of 2005.
