🇸🇭 A remarkable story in the confluence of cables & constellations: how @OneWeb by its interest to build a gateway in the South Atlantic facilitated funding for St Helena's submarine cable & how @Starlink then forced the island monopolist to actually let islanders use the cable.
In my latest blog post for @kentikinc, I cover Saint Helena's historic submarine cable activation and tell the story of the years-long advocacy work by @ConnectStHelena to make this development a reality.
https://t.co/5EfQm0nHSb
🇸🇭Today marks a historical moment for St Helena island in the South Atlantic Ocean. In the early morning hours, the island's connection to @Google's Equiano cable was activated, bringing 4500 people into the broadband age. Tune in to the initial reactions:
https://t.co/agPAIwAYVn
BREAKING NEWS: As of early this morning, the South Atlantic island of St Helena is now sending traffic over their new subsea cable branch to @Google's Equiano cable.
@kentikinc synthetics saw a dramatic drop in latency from AWS in London: 657ms → 131ms!
https://t.co/pNhpdQlcuY
St Helena finally activates its link to @Google's Equiano cable funded by €21.5m grant from @EU_Commission but telecoms monopolist remains, continues to limit data allowance on some tariffs despite 100Gbps IRU to Portugal paid for by European taxpayers:
https://t.co/ildZBBDWpw
@IanJohnBuckley@Megaconstellati@TMFAssociates@StHelenaGovt@Starlink@OneWeb@Google St Helena 's Telecommunications Ordinance reads like an artefact from the days of the East India Company. Basically one of the UK's remotest communities is held hostage by a monopoly as the island would need to buy them out if their monopoly is not extended.
🇸🇭 @StHelenaGovt warns public not to use @Starlink as it contravenes exclusivity of the island's telecoms monopolist, Sure South Atlantic, which in turn is building a @OneWeb gateway. Violations after 01-NOV-2023 may result in confiscation of equipment.
https://t.co/h7y73EaIuF
@larrypress@Megaconstellati@philBE2@OneWeb No, still in limbo. The island government couldn't agree with the monopolist on an extension past 2023 & are now building their own publicly owned FTTH network but it's unclear who will light it up. It could still be Sure but the monopoly is likely to end.
https://t.co/DtF8z5gBoD
🇸🇭Saints' bittersweet view of Equiano RFS :
“@SEACOM are now using the fastest direct data transmission route
between Africa and Europe…lucky @SEACOM users.
In StHelena we pay £17,000 a quarter for NOT using our Equiano branch”…🙄 @StHelenaGovt
🔎p4: https://t.co/LiVmcwEHHk
15MAR23 • Equiano cable goes live between 🇿🇦 and 🇵🇹
📈Breaking News ❗️
Despatch from Our Man in 🇿🇦Cape Town ❗️
@Seacom just activated their own 12 Tbps fiber pair ExpressRoute over Equiano cable, now live between 🇿🇦 Melkbosstrand and 🇵🇹 Sesimbra.
📃 https://t.co/lRkZddGr6H
05SEP22 • Equiano 🌍Europe-Africa - Towards Final Splice
Following 🇿🇦Melkbosstrand landing,
🇫🇷🚢CS Ile de Sein slowly deployed ≈200km 🧭WSW section for 28d.
Now, picking up speed 🧭NW closing the final gap to Southern trunk tail buoy.
@ASN_comm@ConnectStHelena@OpenServeZA
24MAY22 • Equiano 🌍 Europe-Africa cable landing - 🇵🇹Sesimbra
Breaking Despatch from our Girl in 🇵🇹Sesimbra ! 😉
🇫🇷🚢CS Ile de Sein just landed Equiano on Sesimbra BMH
Actual Golden-buoy reached shore this morning 😎
@ConnectStHelena@ASN_comm@Google@altice_portugal
.@helena_indy reports ¾ of @Google's Equiano submarine cable set to bring the broadband age to #StHelena has been completed. Currently 3 cable layers are deployed but @ASN_Comm's Île de Brehat has been idling for 2 weeks off Lagos. Commissioning expected in March 2023.
@philBE2