[Kictanet] Fw: [DigAfrica] Stop infighting over EASSY

[alice at apc.org]

Hi all

Is this a case of a good private sector initiative gone bad because of 
government interference or  is it the other way round?

best
alice


http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/531243

Stop infighting over EASSY
Thursday, 9th November, 2006

THE arrival of an underwater optic fibre cable in East Africa has
been delayed by infighting between governments and telecom companies.

Yet the East African Submarine System's proposed 9,900 km of
underwater cable between Port Sudan and Mtunzini in South Africa
could do more to transform East African economies than any other
single infrastructure project of equivalent cost.

Today all East Africa's connections to the Internet and international
broadband go by satellite. The rest of the world is connected by
optical fibre cables that run between continents. These are faster
and cheaper than satellite connections.

Once EASSY arrives in East Africa, the cost of Internet and telephone
connections will drop by an estimated 65 per cent which will make
East African companies more efficient and more profitable.

EASSY was supposed to arrive in 2007 but now it is delayed because no-
one can agree who is in charge.

Originally the big telecom companies across southern and eastern
Africa were building it but in 2005 NEPAD and the World Bank decided
that EASSY should be run on an `open access' basis to allow service
operators access to the cable at cost.

This is a beautiful idea in theory but who is going to pay? Big
telecom companies like MTN and UTL are now obviously reluctant to
pump in money if they are not going to get a commercial return.

East African operators are now considering an alternative underwater
cable connection to Fujairah in the Emirates yet this would retard
the cause of African commercial integration.
It is time for the infighting to stop.

The telecom companies have got the financial muscle to make EASSY
happen immediately. If governments are worried about open access, let
them insist that the telecom companies provide it with a modest
profit margin of, say, 10 per cent.

But let's delay no longer. EASSY is something that East and Southern
Africa needed yesterday.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/531243