France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is continuing its international growth drive with partners of the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2) consortium to construct a submarine cable in the Indian Ocean.
Following the introduction of the LION network cable that linked Madagascar to the world through connections in Reunion Island Mauritius, this is second phase of France Telecom's Indian Ocean plan.
Extending the LION cable to Kenya via the island of Mayotte, the 3,000 km LION2 cable will provide Mayotte with access to a broadband Internet network with 1.28 Tbps of total capacity.
The new cable is being built a consortium that includes France Telecom-Orange and its subsidiaries Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar and Telkom Kenya, and other service providers Emtel, Societe Reunionnaise du Radiotelephone and STOI Internet. Set to be ready for service in the first half of 2012, the LION2 cable will cost about $76 million with $42 million coming directly from France Telecom itself.
LION2 is one of two major submarine cable networks France Telecom is helping to build out this year. In Africa, the French incumbent is working in conjunction with the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) consortium to build a 23 country submarine cable network linking Southern Africa and Europe.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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