The West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), the largest single investor in the East African Submarine System (Eassy), announced that construction is on schedule and the installation of the first landing will start in Maputo, Mozambique before the end of this week. This marks a major milestone in the construction of the new system, which will deliver 1.4 Tbps of capacity along Africa's eastern seaboard. The WIOCC board has been meeting in Nairobi to review the progress of the project. The board is comprised of 12 telecom operators in East, Central and South Africa. Eassy started its marine survey operations late last year and completed the survey in July 2009. The entire system, including the various sub-sea components, has been manufactured. The landing stations have been completed and equipment installation is progressing ahead of schedule. The cable lay for the entire Eassy system will be completed by end-April 2010. This will be followed by two months of intensive end-to-end system testing prior to the system ready-for-service date of 30 June 2010. The cable will land in nine African countries and offer transit connectivity through backhaul networks to at least 12 landlocked countries.