The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) consortium, which proposes to develop a pan-African submarine cable project, has signed a US$70.7-million loan accord with a number of international finance agencies, including the World Bank’s Finance Corporation and the African Development Bank.

The cable would run between South Africa and Sudan and should bring fast and cheap bandwidth to around 23 African countries. Work on the cable is set of commencement in mid December and the project is slated to be ready for commissioning in 2009.

The project has a total cost of US$235-million and the remainder of the financing will come from 25 private telecoms companies which will run the cable as a consortium.