As part of this policy Gateway recently announced that it has purchased a 155 Mbps (STM1) circuit from SEACOM, owner of the first fibre optic cable which will be constructed to connect South Africa to Europe along the east coast of Africa. Peter Gbedemah, Chief Executive of Gateway, said the purchase endorses Gateway Communications' commitment to the future of telecommunications across Africa.

The new fibre will provide 1.2 Terabits capacity for internet, telephone, pictures and other data from South Africa to Marseille via Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya, and is scheduled to enter service in July 2009. It will dramatically improve the quality of communications on the east coast of Africa, currently served by satellite. It will also offer users an alternative to SAT3 for traffic from South Africa to Europe.

Gateway is the largest private data and voice carrier in Africa, and the decision to contract as an anchor tenant on SEACOM reflects the company's continued investment program on the continent, which has totaled over $200M during the past two years. Gateway also has an option to purchase further additional capacity on SEACOM.

Gbedemah said Gateway decided to back SEACOM "because Gateway believes in open access and privately owned telecommunications facilities, which will help to deliver lower prices and increased capacity, with more choices for the companies, operators and people of Africa."

"This contract with SEACOM is part of our innovative response to market demand and aimed at helping us to retain our position as the No. 1 supplier of data and voice services in Africa," said Gbedemah.

Gateway has customers in all the countries touched by SEACOM, and offices in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. Gateway will provide high speed MPLS data services between all points on the network, as well as dedicated bandwidth between any landing points on the fibre.

Gateway already provides connectivity for many large organizations in East Africa, including some of the largest and fastest growing mobile operators across the region. These GSM operators will benefit every bit as much as the multinational corporations, such as mining companies, banks and others. All of them will see an increase in service quality from reduced latency and the huge additional bandwidth provided by SEACOM.

Mobile telephone companies are expanding rapidly throughout Africa and the new technologies they are introducing such as GPRS and 3G, which focus mainly on the provision of data, video and other entertainment and services, require huge amounts of new bandwidth to supplement the already waning satellite supply, diminished because of exponential growth in bandwidth demand.

The fibre will enable the easy interconnection of mobile telephone companies and corporations in East Africa. Many of these telephone operators are also constructing in-country fibre networks and cross borders links to landlocked countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

The SEACOM fibre will also assist the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the UN's Millenium Development Goals. These programs aim to reduce poverty by a number of methods including provision of IT skills and access to the internet, both of which will benefit from the SEACOM cable.

Brian Herlihy, Vice President of Herakles Telecom LLC, the managing partner for SEACOM, said the construction contract for the cable was awarded to Tyco Telecommunications on Nov.13, and that production of the cable and amplifiers is underway. He said laying of the cable will start in 10 months, when the cable has been completed, and that it will be ready for service in June 2009.