PCCW Global has secured a contract to co-build and maintain a subsea cable for Mauritius Telecom.
The 700km Mauritius and Rodrigues Submarine Cable System (MARS) will connect the Indian Ocean islands of Rodrigues – the second largest island in the Republic of Mauritius - and Mauritius itself.
The MARS cable will have a design capacity of 16Tbps, and is expected to be ready for service in 2019. PCCW Global will manage operation of the cable for Mauritius Telecom.
PCCW Global will cooperate with Huawei Marine Networks on the construction of the cable. Huawei Marine CEO Mike Constable said MARS will be the 12th subsea cable system the company has deployed in the African region.
“We are proud to collaborate with Mauritius Telecom and PCCW Global to revolutionize the broadband infrastructure of Rodrigues by providing a step-change in high speed Internet connectivity and facilitate the growth of digital communications,” he said.
“This project is very exciting for us because we are using our experience gained in designing, building, and maintaining submarine cables around the world to assist another service provider, in this case Mauritius Telecom, to commission their own fully-maintained cable investment,” added PCCW Global SVP of global data sales Frederick Chui.
“This completely eliminates any risk in the development, maintenance and operation of what might otherwise have been a technically daunting project.”