earth science

TEAMS (cable system)

TEAMS (cable system) is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TEAMS (cable system) rather than just read about it. In short: TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is an initiative spearheaded by the government of Kenya to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre optic cable. It was first proposed as an alternative to EASSy, the East African Submarine Cable System.

Key takeaways

TEAMS (cable system) belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TEAMS (cable system) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TEAMS (cable system) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is an initiative spearheaded by the government of Kenya to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre optic cable. It was first proposed as an alternative to EASSy, the East African Submarine Cable System. The Kenyan government had grown frustrated with the ownership model favoured by South Africa, the time it was taking and what it perceived as an attempt by South Africa to control the cable. As a result, in November 2006, the Kenyan government decided to partner with the Emirates Telecommunication Establishment (Etisalat) to build its own fibre optic cable. Although the Kenyan government has decided to pursue their own fibre optic cable, they are still committed to EASSy.

History Five companies — Alcatel-Lucent, Tyco Telecommunication, Fujitsu Corporation, NEC Corporation and Huawei Technologies — had placed their bids for the building of the TEAMs undersea cable. On October 11, 2007, Alcatel-Lucent were awarded the $79 million contract to lay the cable. Construction began in January 2008 on the Emirates' side. On 12 June 2009 the cable arrived in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and was launched by the President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki, the Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga and other dignitaries. On 25 February 2012 the TEAMS cable was accidentally cut by a dredging ship carrying some works for the Kenya Ports Authority at Mombasa Offshore. The repairs took about 4 weeks, because of multiple cable cuts between North Sudan and Egypt about the same time. More than half of the networks in Kenya and Uganda were affected. The impact of the break was made worse because TEAMS was itself carrying re-routed EASSy traffic after three cables experienced breaks in the Red Sea on February 17 - Europe India Gateway, SEA-ME-WE 3, and the EASSy. On 27 April 2012 the TEAMS cable suffered another blow, attributed to the same dredging activities at Mombasa.

Path The 5,000 km fibre optic cable links the city of Mombasa on the coast of Kenya to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

Capacity The TEAMS cable was originally designed to have an initial capacity of 80 Gb/s upgradable to 640 Gbit/s should the initial capacity be insufficient. During the implementation of the project, the designed capacity of the system was increased to 1.2 Tb/s and the initial capacity to 120 Gbit/s. Unexpected sharp rise in the demand for international bandwidth is expected to push the parties to the drawing board to consider upgrading the cable system earlier than originally planned. Kenya and the East African countries are increasingly pushing more traffic via the TEAMS cable, because of the perceived better transmission quality (very low latency) and reliability of the system.

Ownership Ownership of the cable is as follows:

15% - Etisalat (UAE) 85% - TEAMs (Kenya) Ltd TEAMS (Kenya) Ltd consists of:

20% - Government of Kenya 32% - Safaricom Ltd 23% - Telkom Kenya 10% - Liquid telecom 6% - Wananchi Group 5% - Jamii Telecom Ltd 1.8% - Access Kenya Group 1.2% - BCS Group

See also SAT-2 SAT-3/WASC SAFE Main One List of international submarine communications cables

Sources http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4868&Itemid=5847 bbc.co.uk https://web.archive.org/web/20120218234326/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/afr/events/arusha-ITU-NEPAD/Documents/doc11(zantel).pdf http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=120703 reuters.com[link removed] https://web.archive.org/web/20120301154611/http://www.cio.co.ke/view-all-main-stories/4948-cable-cuts-whos-up-whos-down-.html

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TEAMS (cable system)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TEAMS (cable system) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TEAMS (cable system) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TEAMS (cable system) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TEAMS (cable system)

In research: TEAMS (cable system) appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TEAMS (cable system) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TEAMS (cable system) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 establishments in Kenya, 2009 establishments in the United Arab Emirates, Internet in Africa, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TEAMS (cable system) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “TEAMS (cable system)” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study TEAMS (cable system) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TEAMS (cable system) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TEAMS (cable system) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TEAMS (cable system) in simple terms?

Why does TEAMS (cable system) matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TEAMS (cable system)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TEAMS (cable system).