[Kictanet] Re: Fw: [Fibre-for-africa] Kenya and its Own Cable..Full Story

[John Walubengo]

good move for Kenya (going it alone?).

But this does raise even more questions than answers e.g.

i) What happens to the Kenyan (TKL) investment sunk into  the EASSy project?
ii) What model (management/ownership) is/will be applied to the new project (if similar to EASSy then we r back to square one)
iii) Could we have documented reasons for abandoning EASSy? (lessons learnt).
iv) etc,

walu.
  

>>> <alice at apc.org> 05/03/06 10:26am >>>

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?premiumid=0&category_id=3&newsid=72296 

Kenya to build Sh15bn fibre optic cable link

Story by JEFF OTIENO
Publication Date: 5/3/2006


Kenya has decided to go it alone in the construction of a Sh15 billion
fibre optic undersea sea cable system connecting it to the rest of the
world.

Fibre optic cables are hair-thin glass fibre for the transmission of
data in the form of light. According to the Government, the envisaged
Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) cable project driven by 15
telecommunications firms from 13 Eastern Africa countries was taking
too long.

EASSy was aimed at establishing an undersea cable system connecting
Mtunzini, located just north of Durban, in South Africa to Port Sudan,
in Sudan a distance of about 9,900 km

Information and Communication permanent secretary, Bitange Ndemo, said
Kenya would begin would begin discussions with Djibouti, one the
countries involved in the construction of the cable network.

It is believed that a link to Djibouti will connect Kenya to the rest
of the world. Apart from Kenya and Djibouti, other countries involved
in the project are South Africa, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar,
Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Dr Ndemo lamented that three-years since the project was envisaged
nothing had been done apart from the holding of numerous meetings.
"The costs of the meetings is almost half the total cost of the
project," he added.

Dr Ndemo spoke at an East African Regulatory, Posts and
Telecommunications organisation meeting held in Nairobi yesterday.

The PS said Kenya needed the cable more than any other country saying
many foreign companies had expressed interest to invest in the country
but were holding back due to connectivity problems.

He, however, denied that the decision would put Kenya on collision
course with other ESSAy members adding that one had to take the lead.

"Somebody has to take control and start the project or else we will
not get anywhere," he added.

The fibre optic cable would be used to connect Nairobi and Mombasa to
open up employment opportunities to thousands of youths in ICT.

The money, the PS said would be raised using the Nairobi Stock
Exchange where the public would buy shares.

A meeting involving players in the industry has already been organised
to deliberate of raising funds and will be attended by among others
Kenya Data Networks, Celtel and Telkom Kenya.

"The cable should be ready by next year to enable the country benefit
from the technology," Dr Ndemo said.
_______________________________________________
Fibre-for-africa mailing list
Fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org 
http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa 


---
Submitted by: alice at apc.org 2006-05-03 03:36:24 EDT4
(Please reply to original submitter for private communication)
---
You are currently subscribed to kiplist-cl as: [jwalubengo at kcct.ac.ke] 
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-kiplist-cl-102682Q at lyris.idrc.ca