[kictanet] [Fwd: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: SEACOM gets funding boost]]]]
alice
alice at apc.org
Thu Jan 17 18:14:12 EAT 2008
From the fibre for Africa list
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] [Fwd: Re: [kictanet] [Fwd: Re: SEACOM
gets funding boost]]
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:21:16 +0100 (CET)
From: Wairagala Wakabi <wakabi at cipesa.org>
Reply-To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants
<fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>
To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants
<fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>
References: <478EEA7B.7040702 at apc.org>
<FB0CFC3EE5CB18438CE7E5D638A91B8082084F at SFCMAIL01.safaricom.net>
Vitalis,
Fibre-for-Africa (www.fibreforafrica.net) today put this issue to Mr
Herlihy, president of SEACOM. His response:
"I can confirm that both of us worked and spent many years with Africa ONE
for the hope that this project would go forward. However, neither of us
were principals of this project and left the project from 2002. It was our
understanding that the only countries that made a deposit were Eritrea and
Mauritania.
"We understand that the sales person for Eritrea was able to help that
money be returned. It should be noted that the Africa ONE name was sold
by AT&T to a private investment group in 1998 and it was this group who
was responsible for that money ¬ JP and myself have nothing to do with
this entity. Since Africa (2002) I have worked as a developer on over $5
billion of projects in Africa, each of which have excellent reputations
and large impacts in their respective countries, including Bujagali in
Uganda."
Wakabi
> If the two men, Jean Pierre de Leu - a resident in Kenya and owner of
> Karibunet and Brian Hilehy President of Heracles from SA- were truly
> involved in Africa One Project, then they should explain what happened
> to the contributions made to the Africa One Project, after it became a
> "White Elephant". The defunct KPTC and many other organizations did
> contribute to this project but it did not take-off. How can we trust
> them now that SEACOM will not go the same direction? And even if Seacom
> will be a success story, they should refund the contributions for Africa
> One.
>
>
> Vitalis
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fibre-for-africa-bounces at lists.apc.org
> [mailto:fibre-for-africa-bounces at lists.apc.org] On Behalf Of alice
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:41 AM
> To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants
> Subject: [Fibre-for-africa] [Fwd: Re: [kictanet] [Fwd: Re: SEACOM gets
> funding boost]]
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] [Fwd: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] SEACOM gets
> funding boost]
> Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:16:48 +0300
> From: Victor Maloi <victormaloi3 at gmail.com>
> To: alice <alice at apc.org>
> CC: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> References: <478E11D0.1070605 at apc.org>
>
>
>
> Wakabi,
> You have not addressed the fact that the principals behind Seacom
> collected funds from African Telcos and never refunded the money when
> the project failed. KPTC now Telcom Kenya indeed paid and never
> recovered the funds. Should we embrace these individuals even when they
>
> stole from our national investments? Please declare your interests too.
>
> Victor
>
>
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] SEACOM gets funding boost
> Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:31:24 +0100 (CET)
> From: Wairagala Wakabi <wakabi at cipesa.org
> <mailto:wakabi at cipesa.org>>
> Reply-To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop
> Participants
> <fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org
> <mailto:fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>>
> To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants
> <fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org
> <mailto:fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>>
> CC: Kenya ICT Action Network - KICTANet <kictanet at kictanet.or.ke
> <mailto:kictanet at kictanet.or.ke>>
> References: <
> 3104.217.113.73.239.1195028026.squirrel at mail.cipesa.org
> <mailto:3104.217.113.73.239.1195028026.squirrel at mail.cipesa.org>>
> <478CFEF7.1040209 at apc.org <mailto:478CFEF7.1040209 at apc.org>>
>
>
>
> Alice,
> Our understanding is that SEACOM (The Sea Cable System) is a
> registered in
> Mauritius and owned 25% by Herakles Telecom - the managing partner
> for the
> cable who is based in New York.
>
> The other partners:
> 1) Industrial Promotion Service of the Aga Khan Foundation (25%);
> 2) Venfin (a South African investment holding company with
> interests in
> IT (25%);
> 3) Shanduka Group, a South African investment company (12.5%);
> 4) Convergence Partners, a South African Black Economic Empowerment
> (BEE)
> investment company focusing on the Telecommunications, Media and
> Technology (TMT) sector - 12.5%.
>
> SEACOM says the ownership structure varies for each segment of the
> cable,
> which ensures local ownership of the cable segments connecting
> individual
> countries to comply with regulations in those countries. The cable
> backbone along the east coast of Africa and to India and Europe is
> owned
> by SEACOM; while the segments connecting to individual countries are
> either 100% (South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, India, France) or
> 35%
> (Tanzania, Kenya) locally owned.
>
> Wakabi
>
> =====
> > Hi all
> >
> > Out of curiosity, who is SEACOM? rather who are behind SEACOM?
> > Anyone conducted due diligence. Any connection to the Africa One
> saga?
> >
> > best
> > alice
> >
> >
> >
> > Wairagala Wakabi wrote:
> >> Netters,
> >> Its backers are saying SEACOM will be the only new cable
> completed in
> >> time
> >> to give South Africa the bandwidth needed for the 2010 WC, with
> "actual
> >> production of the fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities"
> starting
> >> next
> >> week. SA's SNO, NEOTEL, has helped marshal capital from local
> financial
> >> heavyweights, enabling NEOTEL to be owned 50% by South Africans.
> >>
> >> Tut Tut...
> >>
> >> Wakabi
> >>
> >>
> >> Sea cable venture lands big investors
> >>
> >> By Lesley Stones, Business Day, November 14 2007
> >>
> >> AN UNDERSEA cable promising cheap bandwidth for Africa yesterday
> finally
> >> named its backers, signing up enough well-connected local
> investors to
> >> guarantee its landing rights in SA.
> >>
> >> Investment heavyweight Venfin is sinking $75m into the project,
> taking a
> >> 25% stake in the 15000km cable linking SA to India and Europe.
> >>
> >> Cyril Ramaphosa's black investment house Shanduka is taking
> 12,5%, worth
> >> $37,5m. Another 12,5% goes to Convergence Partners, a group of
> black
> >> investors led by Andile Ngcaba, the chairman of Dimension Data
> Africa
> >> and
> >> a former director-general of the communications department.
> Nedbank
> >> Capital and Investec will provide financing for the $650m
> project.
> >>
> >> SA's second network operator, Neotel, is pumping in a far more
> modest
> >> R20m, and using its telecoms licence to guarantee that the cable
> can
> >> dock
> >> in SA.
> >>
> >> The local ownership is sufficient to ensure that Seacom meets
> >> controversial new conditions being drawn up by Communications
> Minister
> >> Ivy
> >> Matsepe-Casaburri, dictating who can land a cable in SA. The
> minister is
> >> insisting that any cable must be majority owned by African
> investors to
> >> come ashore.
> >>
> >> South Africans hold 50% of Seacom, and that rises to 75% African
> >> ownership
> >> thanks to 25% held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic
> Development's
> >> Industrial Promotion Services, a development agency based in
> Kenya.
> >>
> >> The remaining 25% lies with New York's Herakles Telecom, a
> development
> >> group that has invested $4bn in Africa.
> >>
> >> Neotel is investing only in the local landing station, but its
> licence
> >> to
> >> operate in SA conferred on it the right to land a cable, said MD
> Ajay
> >> Pandey.
> >>
> >> "Our understanding is that the country needs international
> capacity, and
> >> the way international cable landing protocols have been defined
> means we
> >> have the opportunity here."
> >>
> >> Venfin CEO Jannie Durand said Neotel's licence to land a cable
> in SA
> >> meant
> >> everything had been done "legally and correctly". Venfin was
> backing
> >> Seacom for two reasons, he said: "We are hopefully going to make
> a lot
> >> of
> >> money out of it and SA needs more bandwidth. We want to bring SA
> >> affordable bandwidth to the rest of the world."
> >>
> >> Although the cable will cost $650m, it would be partly funded by
> loans
> >> as
> >> well as equity, allowing Venfin to take 25% for less than the
> book value
> >> of the project, Durand said.
> >>
> >> Pandey believes Seacom will be the onlyThe actual production of
> the
> >> fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities will start next week.
> >>
> >> The consortium has already invested more than $10m in a marine
> survey
> >> and
> >> engineering of the cable. The actual production of the
> fibreoptic cable
> >> and undersea facilities will start next week.
> >>
> >> Seacom will connect Mtunzini in SA to Mumbai in India and
> Marseilles in
> >> France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania by June
> 2009.
> >>
> >> Terrestrial links will be built to take its bandwidth to
> numerous other
> >> inland countries. Its capacity of 1,28 terabytes per second is
> 10 times
> >> the capacity on the existing Sat-3 cable around Africa's west
> coast.
> >>
> >> The consortium has promised that it will charge other voice and
> data
> >> carriers significantly less for its bandwidth than they pay to
> use Sat-3
> >> or satellite services, which should trigger a massive decrease
> in the
> >> cost
> >> of phone calls, internet access and data transmissions for
> African
> >> consumers and businesses.
> >>
> >> "Improved access for business and individuals in Africa to
> >> communications,
> >> broadband services and new technology offerings can improve
> lives and
> >> help
> >> grow the economies of our countries," said Ngcaba, the chairman
> of
> >> Convergence Partners. "The linking of southern and east Africa
> with
> >> India
> >> and Europe is crucial for enhancing development and trade
> between these
> >> key regions."
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Fibre-for-africa mailing list
> >> Fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org
> <mailto:Fibre-for-africa at lists.apc.org>
> >> http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa
> >
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>
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