Managing director of telecommunications operator Neotel Ajay Pandey has said that the company would go ahead with its US$550-million submarine fibre-optic cable project up Africa’s east coast and that it was sure of being able to meet the prescription of authorities in South Africa regarding landing rights.

The Department of Communications has objected to what it terms a foreign-owned cable landing in the country, suggesting that landing rights should be reserved for projects for which the shareholding was predominantly local.

Panday said that Neotel viewed landing rights as within the scope of its South African licence and hoped to land the cable on South Africa’s eastern seaboard near Richards Bay. Panday indicated that the company had been in discussion with the regulator and the government on the issue and was convinced that landing the cable was part of its licence.

While Panday refused to disclose the shareholding in the project it is known that the core investors are foreign although there is a South African component. He said that the decision to go ahead with the project had been made in light of South Africa’s increasing need for better broadband infrastructure, especially with the broadband demands that the 2010 Soccer World Cup would bring.