[kictanet] EASSy: What's in a Name?

[A. Wanjira Munyua]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wairagala Wakabi" <wakabi at cipesa.org>
To: "APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants"
<fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 3:28 PM
Subject: [Fibre-for-africa] EASSy: What's in a Name?


> Here are the views of CIPESA Senior Policy Associate Anthony Mugeere on
> the reported renaming of EASSy. He wonders whether change of name would
> achieve anything but that.
> --
>
> EASSy re-naming is not an EASY option
>
> By Anthony Mugeere
>
> So what, as renowned playwright William Shakespeare once asked, is in a
> name? Does a rose (flower) by any another name still smell the same?
>
> The recent pronouncement by South Africa’s communications minister,
> Matsepe-Casaburri that the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) had
> been renamed the NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network (NBIN) was as
> astounding as her assertion, during the same function, that “the original
> model developed for the cable is not what international financial
> institutions such as the World Bank would have liked.”  This was in direct
> reference to the closed access model, believed to be widely favoured by
> the consortium telecom operators who conceived the EASSy project way back
> in 1992.
>
> Whereas the merits and demerits of closed access have been widely debated
> by all and sundry, the assertion gives further credence to what some
> analysts have for long asked: What really does the World Bank stand for?
> In the early 1990s, the Washington-based financial institution pushed for
> the liberalisation and privatisation of the telecom sub-sector in almost
> all African countries - with resounding success. By so doing, the World
> Bank wanted governments to get out of utility services such as
> telecommunications so that the profit-driven and often more efficient
> private sector takes centre stage. Countries like Uganda, that implemented
> the structural adjustment policies are now role models of accepting the
> closed access model of telecom growth and are reaping big dividends. So
> has the World Bank changed its thinking on liberalisation when it supports
> NEPAD—a representative of regional governments? That however, is another
> story.
>
> Today’s story is entirely about the change of name by NEPAD. On the
> outlook, there is nothing to write home about. It is just a change of
> name, period! Two glaring facts are however very clear about the
> development: First, NEPAD is now the regional initiative that is
> implementing the once much-publicised EASSy project. Secondly, “that EASSy
> thing” as it was once labelled by a member of the NEPAD e-Africa
> Commission is just a component of what NEPAD is doing now. The
> Pretoria-based commission is currently working implementing the overall
> “broadband infrastructure network”.
>
> Whereas the implementation of the project is only awaiting signing and
> ratification of the protocol and perhaps the announcement of the new
> landing point for the second undersea cable, the renaming of the project
> further shows that the founding fathers of the EASSy cable are being
> relegated to a less fancied position in the decision making hierarchy.
> Although NEPAD has, on several occasions, denied claims by some consortium
> members that it “hijacked their thing”, the renaming of the project would
> lend more sympathy to the “club members” in the cause than to the regional
> body. The situation is akin to constructing a house’s internal water and
> sewerage system—complete with high-density pipes - without working on the
> outside system that connects it to the municipality or national grid.
>
> When will NEPAD, given the bureaucratic protocol issues, pull off the
> broadband project all the way from South Africa through Botswana,
> Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda to Kigali as explained by the
> communications minister? Won’t individual countries like Uganda who are in
> the process of laying their own backbone infrastructure complete theirs
> and tap onto the Kenyan link and trigger a “tapping wave” from its
> neighbours especially Rwanda and Burundi? Won’t private investors, who
> have already smelt a business opportunity cash in on the situation to tap
> on the Kenya line to do closed access business before NEPAD opens up its
> network?
>
> NEPAD needs to ponder these and more questions as it embarks on
> implementing the region’s eagerly awaited infrastructure project. Having
> re-named the baby, it is not wise to throw out young EASSy’s bed just yet.
> Implementing the EASSy project, as first conceived in 2002 would have
> delivered immediate relief to those in urgent need of affordable bandwidth
> and reliable connectivity than implementing a massive broadband project,
> subject to bureaucratic and funding bottlenecks under a new name. The
> equation is simple: If it sounds like ‘EASSy’, it should be easy. Wrapping
> rose flowers to be delivered as a Valentine’s Day gift to your spouse or
> lover with inscriptions reading, “accept these bougainvillea flowers” does
> not, in any way negate the fact that they are rose flowers. But then, when
> have EASSy matters ever been easy?
> --
>
> Wakabi
>
> ==============
> Wairagala Wakabi
> Research Associate
> CIPESA
> Plot 22 Bukoto Street, Kamwokya
> P.O Box 26970 Kampala, Uganda
> Tel. +256 41 531899
> Cell: +256 772 406 241
> Email: wakabi at cipesa.org
> www.cipesa.org
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