SAEx, a long-running challenge by a group of South Africans to construct a submarine broadband cable system, has a renewed lease on life.
TechCentral has learnt completely that the Industrial Growth Company (IDC) has permitted challenge growth capital to finish a “definitive” feasibility research for the SAEx East Subsea Fibre-Optic Cable Undertaking, which is able to join South Africa with Singapore in Southeast Asia.
The challenge, which has been in growth in numerous guises for greater than a decade, could lastly be transferring forward, with monetary shut on fundraising anticipated within the second half of the yr.
The final time any information emerged from the SAEx group was seven years in the past, when it was stated it had contracted Alcatel Submarine Networks to conduct a submarine survey.
The IDC and SAEx Worldwide Administration Restricted (SIML) shall be co-sponsors of the SAEx East challenge – the primary part of an envisaged cable system that may ultimately additionally ship a route from South Africa to the Americas throughout the Atlantic Ocean. When accomplished, your entire cable system shall be generally known as the SAEx Southern Oceans Community, or SAEx SON.
“The community will join 4 continents alongside a novel however resilient southern hemispheric all-wet routing that connects South Africa to Asia through Singapore,” SAEx stated in an announcement shared with TechCentral.
“It’ll have branching models to a number of Indian Ocean islands and different strategic markets, together with the prospect of a department to India alongside the route. By the SAEx West system, the second part of the challenge, the community will join South Africa to South America, North America and probably West Africa.
Deep-ocean path
SAEx challenge director and SIML MD Rosalind Thomas stated: “SAEx East is an extra undersea cable route eradicating dependency on the normal Purple Sea route or the proposed terrestrial routes to Europe.
“Moreover, it’s a less expensive all-wet, deep-ocean path for quantity visitors needing a safe, environment friendly and impartial path to both the Americas or Asia. It’ll present a resilient, environment friendly service that’s aggressive and equal in latency (community roundtrip instances), with far fewer hops in comparison with present and proposed east-west routes between Asia, the Americas and Europe. The system will set up South Africa as a impartial world hub on the centre of a deliberate world community.”
Learn: Google to construct South Africa to Australia subsea cable referred to as Umoja
Thomas stated touchdown stations for SAEx shall be in Amanzimtoti in KwaZulu-Natal for visitors into South Africa and the remainder of Africa; East London for Jap Cape visitors; Melkbosstrand (for the Western Cape and the principle endpoint of the system in addition to the interconnection location for SAEx West, when it’s constructed).
The core touchdown within the east is in Singapore, with a secondary touchdown in Malaysia, a core touchdown in Mauritius and a secondary touchdown deliberate for Reunion – and with stubbed branching models for India and Thailand.
Thomas declined to say how a lot SAEx East will price to construct, citing confidentiality for “enterprise causes”.
The IDC funding is supposed to take the challenge to monetary shut, she stated. “At shut, the IDC will make investments considerably extra in fairness to attain a 25% fairness stake within the challenge particular objective automobile and probably present some debt,” Thomas stated.
Submarine surveys for the South Africa to Singapore route shall be achieved beneath a turnkey contract following the anticipated monetary shut later this yr.
Rian Coetzee, appearing division govt of business and challenge growth on the IDC, stated the challenge will improve South Africa’s world standing and connectivity rating. “After due consideration, the company determined to affix SIML as a co-sponsor of the SAEx East part and supply growth funding to convey the challenge to monetary shut.”
Learn: Bandwidth bonanza: the undersea cables that join South Africa to the world
“The SAEx East challenge is anticipated to achieve monetary shut within the second half of 2025 following 4 intensive years of challenge preparation and the total assist of its strategic companions, the place touchdown occasion agreements are beneath finalisation alongside the cable’s core routing,” the SAEx assertion stated.
SIML is integrated and registered in Mauritius and describes itself because the “non-public sector sponsor and co-developer of the SAEx East challenge”. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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