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Good practice Imported

St Helena's Equiano Landing — Subsea Fibre for One of the World's Most Remote Territories

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha · Jamestown · See the Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 93% 43/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In October 2023, St Helena — reachable only by air or sea — connected to Google's Equiano subsea cable, cutting latency from 657ms to 131ms; two years on it uses only ~10% of purchased capacity as ageing copper wiring and £120/month pricing still limit uptake.

~657 ms
Round-trip latency to London, before (satellite)
131 ms
Round-trip latency to London, after (fibre)
~10 %
Purchased capacity actually utilised (~2 years post-activation)
St Helena's Equiano Landing — Subsea Fibre for One of the World's Most Remote Territories

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
St Helena Government / Google (Equiano cable) / Telecom Egypt
Period
2023–present
Keywords
telecommunications infrastructure, digital economy, government

Context

Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory of about 4,500 people located 1,950km from the nearest continental coast, relied solely on costly, high-latency satellite internet until October 2023, when a branching unit off Google's Equiano transatlantic-and-African subsea cable was activated for the island, delivered with Telecom Egypt as the landing and backhaul partner.

Activities

The island purchased 100 Gbps of capacity in each direction -- orders of magnitude beyond anything satellite could offer -- which the St Helena Government framed as opening new growth potential in health, education, tourism and e-commerce.

Results

Round-trip latency to London fell from roughly 657 milliseconds under satellite to 131 milliseconds over fibre. Independent network-engineering analysis by Kentik found that, roughly two years after activation, the island was using only about 10% of its purchased capacity because the ageing copper 'last-mile' network limits what most homes and businesses can actually receive.

Conclusions

Advertised retail plans (around GBP 120/month for 20 Mbps) sit awkwardly against average full-time annual earnings of about GBP 11,010 (2024/25) -- meaning the infrastructure upgrade has yet to translate into affordable, widely used broadband for most residents.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — 100 Gbps of purchased capacity in each direction; specific cost not disclosed.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Activated October 2023; independent utilisation analysis roughly two years later.
Staffing & skills
St Helena Government telecoms team, Telecom Egypt landing/backhaul partner

Conditions for success

  • a subsea cable branching unit off an existing major cable (Equiano) rather than a dedicated new cable
  • a capable backhaul and landing partner (Telecom Egypt)

Common failure modes

  • ageing copper last-mile network limits what most homes/businesses can actually receive, so only ~10% of purchased capacity is used
  • advertised retail pricing sits awkwardly against average local earnings

Where it fits

Governance type
overseas territory government
Scale
island territory (~4,500 people)
Income level
high income (UK overseas territory)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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Attachments

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