TEAMS (cable system)

TEAMS
(The East African Marine System)
Owners:
Government of Kenya; Etisalat; private investors
Landing points
Total length4,500 km
Topologyunknown
Design capacity40 Gb/s (upgradeable to 640 Gb/s)
Currently lit capacityn/a
TechnologyFiber optics
Date of first useApril 2009 (April 2009)

TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is an initiative spearheaded by the government of Kenya to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre optic cable. It was first proposed as an alternative to EASSy, the East African Submarine Cable System. The Kenyan government had grown frustrated with the ownership model favoured by South Africa, the time it was taking and what it perceived as an attempt by South Africa to control the cable. As a result, in November 2006, the Kenyan government decided to partner with the Emirates Telecommunication Establishment (Etisalat) to build its own fibre optic cable.

Although the Kenyan government has decided to pursue their own fibre optic cable, they are still committed to EASSy.