[kictanet] Kenya: Fibre optic cable almost reaches telephone house

[alice]

Kenya: Fibre optic cable almost reaches telephone house

'we expect a lot of movement to take place in the month of April'

Coastweek -- A timetable for the roll-out of the TEAMS (The East African 
Marine Systems) cable has been released by contractors, Alcatel 
Submarines Network Systems.

According to Mr. Nzioka Waita, a TEAMS board member and Safaricom's Head 
of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, "we expect a lot of movement to take 
place in the month of April."

Activities lined up for April include the completion of loading and 
commencement of the dropping of the cable, a visit to Fujairah by the 
TEAMS board members to inspect the equipment before the ship starts 
laying the cable in the sea.

Waita was speaking in Mombasa yesterday after a TEAM's board of 
directors' inspection of the terminal equipment, housed in the equipment 
room and landing station room situated in Telephone House on Moi Avenue.

Terminal equipment is what is necessary to light the entire length of 
the cable and to provide a point of connection for the submarine cable 
to the terrestrial infrastructure in the country.

They include power feeding equipment, transmission equipment, SDH and 
network monitoring equipment.

"We are fairly confident the equipment room is now ready to be handed 
over to the contractor to begin the installation of equipment for the 
landing station," said Waita who was accompanied by Mr. Victor Kyalo 
from the Kenya ICT Board, who is also seconded to TEAMS as the Acting 
CEO and Project Manager.

The equipment is already in Kenya awaiting clearance, while the Alcatel 
Contractors who will do the installation are also in the country and 
waiting to be handed over the room.

"We just want to tell everyone interested in the TEAMS project that 
everything is on track and we are receiving a lot of co-operation from 
shareholders to make sure the project happens in time and within the 
budget," said Waita.

The US $ 130 million TEAMS project shareholding ratio includes:

Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and the Government of Kenya all with 20 per cent 
of the shares, (KDN) Kenya Data Network with 10 per cent, Wananchi 
Online with five per cent; Jamii Telkom; 3.5 per cent and Access Kenya 
and Flashcom; 1.25 per cent.

Others are Econet and Africa Fibre Net of Uganda.

The Kenyan shareholders have pledged US $ 110 million (Sh8.6 billion) 
while the difference will be raised by Dubai Telecom Operator, Etisalat.

Waita said the project has all requisite permits and approvals from 
(NEMA), the National Environment Management Agency which were received 
in November last year.


coast week....

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