A Cable Landing Party Agreement has been signed between PEACE Cable International Network Co, Ltd (PEACE Cable) and Cyber Internet Services Pvt Ltd (Cybernet Pakistan). This landmark agreement, signed the other day at Capacity North Africa in Cairo, follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties in 2018. The Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) is a 12,000km long, privately owned cable system that provides open, flexible and carrier-neutral services to its customers. The PEACE is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2020, and will add a total capacity of 96 Tb/s to Pakistan’s Internet infrastructure. The system design will adopt the latest 200G technology and WSS technology, which provides the capability to transmit over 16 Tb/s per fibre pair, servicing growing regional capacity needs. The PEACE cable system – with landings in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France – will connect the three most populated continents in the world, providing critical interconnection to the economic corridors of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Cybernet, amongst Pakistan’s oldest internet service providers (ISPs), is the PEACE cable landing station (CLS) partner in Pakistan and will be deploying PEACE Pakistan CLS and managing its operations. With over 22 years of experience in building and running countrywide fibre broadband operations, IP/MPLS networks and cloud optimised data centres, Cybernet will be building Pakistan’s first carrier-neutral cable landing station in Karachi. The design and selection of the CLS site in Karachi is in line with Cybernet’s objectives to bring carrier neutrality and much needed redundancy to Pakistan’s Internet backbone. Cybernet will provide capacity to local and global carriers, content delivery network (CDNs), content providers and others at easily accessible interconnect points across Pakistan – enabling true carrier neutrality and open access. Speaking on the occasion, Danish Lakhani, CEO of Cybernet Pakistan, said, “We are humbled to be able to contribute in bringing a submarine cable system that will have an outsized impact on the digital landscape in Pakistan. PEACE is the only cable system that originates in Pakistan and connects three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe) and elevates our country’s strategic standing in the global connectivity race. This ultrahigh capacity cable will boost available bandwidth to meet current and future requirements of Pakistan, and that of neighbouring countries. With its ultralow latency design, the cable will cut down transit time between Pakistan and France to less than 90 milliseconds – dramatically improving the response time of Internet-based applications and the experience of our users. The cable will also bolster the redundancy of our country’s connectivity to the rest of world. At Cybernet, our vision is to create an enabling environment for Pakistan’s digital landscape where ISPs, carriers, CDNs, content providers and virtually all IT enabled firms can extend affordable services to our citizens, while contributing to increasing GDP, IT exports and total factor productivity.” PEACE Cable International Network Co, Ltd is a subsidiary of Hengtong Group. Hengtong Group is a Global innovative enterprise group with Headquarters in China, which services in the field of information and communication, electricity transmission, energy mineral, financial, real estate, trade and investment. With wholly owned and holding more than 70 companies, including three listed companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange, Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchange, Hengtong has not only industry bases in 10 provinces and cities in China, and 10 research and development industry bases (located in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, India, Germany, Egypt) around the world, but also marketing and technical service companies in more than 30 overseas countries and regions. At the same time, the products are widely used in more than 140 countries and areas. Speaking on the occasion, Hengtong Vice President and PEACE Cable CEO Wu Qianjun said, “PEACE is the first privately owned submarine cable system from China. We see the PEACE project as a strategic pivot for the Hengtong Group – to obtain our experience as a subsea cable investor – and look forward to identifying new investing opportunities in this market in the future. We are extremely excited to cooperate with Cybernet as our landing partner in Pakistan for PEACE. It’s the power of this cooperation that is spearheading the deployment and commercialisation of better connectivity between Asia, Africa and Europe.”