Seacom's new CEO , Mark Simpson recently sat to an interview where he discussed about Seacom's current status and future.
How is Seacom's uptake?
The uptake has been good. Since we launched the system over two years ago, we found an enormous demand for our services as we released that there was need to for other services as we started to bring internet or broadband capacity to Africa and to Kenya in particular. And honestly, we expect that this will only grow as access networks improve through out the Africa countries then we will be happy to offer our services and we are happy with the progress.
How much capacity of Seacom's capacity is lit currently?
So far 60 percent of the capacity is lit on we originally built but on our fibre system we can expand capacity quite a lot. Technology is changing a lot and we have already began to plan for our next upgrade which will be in the next 12- 15 months and therefore we will have plenty capacity to serve our customers.

What differentiates SEACOM from the other cables?

First of all Seacom was the first cable system to land and that is very important to note. And secondly the places that we land, the reach that we have, the services that we can deliver especially as we start with those that have IP Capability on top of network transmission which is absolutely critical-we also need to further build resilience into the network using west coast capacity as well as having highly reliable next work. Then our final differential is how we understand our customers and how fast we activate our customers and their needs.

Are you foreseeing any price reductions in future?

I think what Seacom brought to Africa and Kenya in particular is price reduction already. The combination of the economics we offer on the sub-sea and the benefits we see from the terrestrial networks will continue to deliver quite a reduction in price but with quality being our main focus.

Are you going to invest in the terrestrial networks?

We are happy to participate in different ways-sometimes we will invest directly, sometimes we will buy capacity, sometimes we encourage governments to build and we partner with them. Therefore we carefully assess what are the needs for each country and focusing on demand.

Are there markets that warrant your direct investment?

As we look at the growth of different markets, we are happy with what is happening in Kenya and like Tanzania where the fibre cables are built through consortiums and private public partnerships led by governments; we continue having discussions with them.

Are going to offer premium services?

When we offer premium services it will be to connect with our wholesale customers so that they can offer there services on international platforms. We looking at data sevices, MPLS services act as a value added service which enable our customer .already we are offering IP transit services and this is not meant to create a conflict of interest with our customers but as enabling environment to offering international services.

Do you have a redundancy plan?

Currently we are partnering with other cables on the East Coast of Africa to offer alternative paths and the same time we have invested on restoration services to ensure our customers are up incase there is a system break down.