PARIS -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has signed a contract worth more than US$30 million with Seychelles Cable System (SCS) to build the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS) linking Victoria in Seychelles, to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The new system will provide the Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, with high-speed direct access to the world’s optical fiber backbone, for the first time. The SEAS will span over 1,900 km offering international connectivity in support of affordable Internet access and new broadband applications for commerce, government services, e-health for improved quality of life.

“This new connection will provide faster Internet and improved access to telecommunications, providing a cost-effective reliable solution that will give us an alternative to satellite connections, which we are almost completely dependent on now,” said Benjamin Choppy, Principal Secretary, Department of ICT in the Vice-President’s Office. The CEOs of the two telecom operators participating in SCS, Mr. Charles Hammond (Cable & Wireless Seychelles) and Mr. Tsiresy Randriamampionona (AIRTEL Seychelles), also remarked that “The scalability of Alcatel-Lucent submarine solution and its extensive end-to-end expertise will help us meet our growing bandwidth needs as well as improve the quality of service we offer our customers on both fixed and mobile networks.”

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)