Djibouti Telecom, Somtel, Telkom Kenya and SubCom said that all manufacturing aspects for the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1) submarine cable system are complete.
The system will have four landing stations to help expand connectivity in Eastern Africa: Djibouti (Djibouti), Bosaso (Somalia), Mogadishu (Somalia) and Mombasa (Kenya).
With a finalised cable length of 4,854 km, DARE1 will include three branching units and 41 dual-stage repeaters to maximise its capacity.
The loading of the cable onto the marine vessel SubCom Durable started on November 13, 2019 and is forecasted to be complete in December 2019.
The project is said to be progressing on schedule and the system is on track to be ready for commercial traffic in June 2020.
Djibouti Telecom Director General, Mohamed Assoweh Bouh , says: “We are very pleased that the DARE1 system is progressing on schedule and will be ready for service in 2020. We understand the importance of bringing connectivity to eastern Africa and couldn’t imagine a better company to partner with to achieve this mission other than SubCom.”
Vice President of Project Management at SubCom, Debbie Brask , says: “The timely manufacture of the DARE1 undersea plant keeps us on schedule to get this system ready for service in June, 2020. This is a testament to our talented manufacturing team and our strong partnership with Djibouti Telecom, Somtel and Telkom Kenya, and we’re looking forward to commencing installation.”