[kictanet] TEAMS and Open ended circuit

[aki]

Hi, its the techie and a non-stake holder. I'd like to add a contribution to
the subject.

Regarding the costs of internet dropping, a short summary. There is much
more to the scenario than being let out by Service Providers.

*Consider Teams :*

- Mombasa to Fujiarah is a technically known as a Half Circuit. Half
Circuits are cost reduction methods and have been in use in as early systems
such as International Private Leased Circuits or IPLCs. The concept works
very well and the Govt initiative got it right. However others may seem to
exploit this scenario.

Assuming that the one time cost of the fiber cable between the 2 points (
Mombasa to Fujiarah ) was USD 130 million and the cable capacity was
40Gbits/sec, therefore the cost of *1 Mbit/s is about 3.25 USD on the half
circuit*. Because the cable is *OWNED not LEASED on a monthly basis*, Teams
players get much cheaper cost bandwidth than compared to Seacom cable on the
same route as it is leased.

So the concept of cheaper bandwidth was spot on using a half circuit when
the Govt initiative was done i.e that is how I understood it to be.

*Now comes forward connectivity*. Because of the main landing stations at
Fujiarah for other cable operators which are major transit inter-continental
points for bulk purchasers like telcos who may even take up STM-16
capacities,  players on Teams may be able to get 10-25USD per 1 Mbit/sec.
Bandwidth costs at these points has always been cheap, the problem was that
no one wanted to bring that connectivity to this part of Africa. Seacom is a
much longer and bigger project thus its costs for a 20 year commitment on
the capacity is around 80-90USD Per 1 Mbit/Sec of bandwidth. ( IRUs )

So once more, costs to Teams players is around 30USD per 1 Mbit of capacity
on an IRU form Fujiarah onwards. Add the maintainence of the cable and costs
go up. I'd estimate that the maximum cost is around 60USD per 1 Mbit/Sec of
bandwidth for bulk purchasers.

KDN was offering Seacom @600USD/Mbit as early as 1st week of August 2009,
Safaricom had already done the move to Seacom within days of it going live
and was offering similar via its other company OneCom. As soon as time
become available, I shall do a simple analysis of the costs inland and list
them here. Service Providers are  holding back due to other reasons.

*Solution :*

- I believe one major solution that is going to activate the price drops is
for CCK to introduce a Virtual ISP license with an annual monthly fee of
Kshs 10,000/-. VISPs do not own or operate any infrastructure. They would
operate a customer support base and would be able to buy the cheaper
bandwidth eg from KDN on Seacom/teams or Safaricom OneCom Seacom/teams and
pass the reductions to the end users. I think this avenue should be looked
into.

*Content:*

- Content is something waiting to happen and there are many examples. As I
mentioned on another list, take the example of Kenya National Museums and
convert this into online catalogue content for use by Kenyan Schools and
many others who use the internet. To create a virtual experience would be an
achievement. If no one has done this within the next 24 months, then I hope
some of us will get to it and move it to a newer level. ( Not advertising
nor marketing here and its a techie thing, but some of us have setup a site
like a notice board where we share what projects are in the pipeline :
www.projectkenya.info )

My amatuer thought, corrections are welcome.

Rgds.
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