E-marine, a leader in submarine cable installation, maintenance and repair, has signed a maintenance and storage agreement with East African Submarine System (EASSy), owned by a group of African and international telecom operators.

The EASSy is a 10,500 km submarine cable system constructed along the east coast of Africa aimed at improving access to high-performance Internet, business and mobile-phone data services in twenty-one African nations.

As per the agreement, E-marine will now take responsibility for maintaining up to an 8,600 km-strech of the EASSy submarine cable network.

It will also provide secure storage for supplies and accessories in its bonded cable depot in the Port of Salalah, Oman.

The agreement was signed by EASSy O&MSC chairs Vinod Kumar Verma and Ryan Sher and Omar Bin Kalban, managing director & CEO of E-marine.

Trevor Martins, chairman of EASSy management committee said: 'The increasing demand for telecommunications systems to connect Africa to the rest of the world was the motive behind building EASSy.'

'This is a critical cable route upon which millions of people will come to depend, hence we require a partner with the expertise, resources and successful track record to ensure the reliability of the system and mitigate against any downtime risks.'

'We are confident of achieving this with the support of E-marine and will ensure that the EASSy communities are fully connected and are able to secure a better future,' he added.

Omar Bin Kalban, managing director & CEO of E-Marine said: 'The East African Submarine System is one of the breakthrough cable projects in the region. It will offer massive capacity to twenty-one coastal and land-locked countries in eastern Africa, helping to bridge the digital divide between nations.'

'We are delighted to have been given the responsibility of ensuring that this great cable is maintained and we are committed to delivering the highest level of quality of service to EASSy and its customers,' Bin Kalban added.

E-marine is an ISO certified company and one of the market leaders in submarine cable installation, maintenance and repair. It owns three cable ships and one special purpose cable laying support vessel which are all fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment.-TradeArabia News Service