CEO Byron Clatterbuck eyes a potential option joint venture as the West Africa Cable System runs out of capacity.
Seacom may build another undersea telecommunications cable along the east or west coast of Africa, says the telecoms infrastructure group.
The company, partly owned by Remgro, owns an undersea cable running along the east coast of Africa. The Seacom cable was launched in 2009 and has played a role in reducing wholesale internet prices.
The West Africa Cable System would start running out of capacity and the west coast could be a potential option, he said. “There will be another cable built but it needs to be adequately diverse and it is likely that we will participate.”
Seacom has expanded its business beyond undersea cable access. It is rolling out fibre network infrastructure in selected metropolitan areas and also provides technology services such as the cloud. It built its first fibre network in Meyersdal, south of Johannesburg, in 2017.
In July it bought Cape Town-based MacroLan, which bolstered Seacom’s offerings to business customers. Seacom now has about 2,500 business customers.
In 2018 it plans to target more low-to medium-sized entities.
