NAIROBI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The West Indian Ocean Cable Company(WIOCC), the largest single investor in the East African Submarine System (EASSy) said Tuesday the construction and the laying of system is on schedule and the installation of the landing is to commence in Maputo, Mozambique, before the end of this week.

This marks a major milestone in the construction of the new system which will deliver 1.4 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity along Africa's eastern seaboard.

The WIOCC Board has been meeting in Nairobi to review the progress of the project and prepare for the commencement of the installation of the cable in Maputo.

WIOCC Chairman John Sihra told journalists in Nairobi that the Board is comprised of 12 African Telecom operators in East, Central and Southern Africa.

"The deployment of the Maputo shore-end represents the next significant step towards completing the EASSy system that will be instrumental in bridging the digital divide and delivering an cost-effective internet access to Africa," WIOCC chairman John Sihra said.

EASSy started its marine survey operations late last year and completed it in July 2009. The entire system, including the various sub-sea components, has been manufactured.

The landing stations have been completed and equipment installation is progressing ahead of schedule.

"EASSy will be the first east coast system to connect on a direct route to Europe, making it the lowest latency system for traffic to key internet peering points in Europe and North America. Whereas, other recently-launched systems use a longer path to reach Europe, via connections in either India or the United Arab Emirates," Wood said.

The cable lay for the entire EASSy system will be completed by the end of April 2010. This will be followed by two months of intensive end-to-end system testing prior to the system ready for service date of June 30, 2010.

The EASSy cable will deliver a massive 1.4 Tbps of capacity, making it the largest submarine cable system serving the African continent.

It will land in nine African countries and offer transit connectivity through backhaul networks to at least 12 landlocked countries, providing the greatest geographic coverage of any system in the region.

WIOCC is telecommunications carriers' carrier, jointly funded by 12 major telecommunications operators in east and southern Africa, and a number of global Development Financial Institutions.

As the largest single investor in the EASSy submarine cable system, the WIOCC will use EASSy together with its shareholders' extensive national networks to interconnect nine coastal countries and 12 of their land-locked neighbors.

It is also extending service reach internationally through interconnection agreements with regional and global carriers.?