[kictanet] [KICTAnet] TEAMS | EASSY Fiber Cables Cut? SEACOM | LION?

Tue Feb 28 16:54:42 EAT 2012

+1 Michuki on your good points

> 1. Today we import more than 80% of the Internet traffic consumed in
> Kenya causing an "Internet Transit Deficit" where significantly less
> Internet traffic is generated locally than accessed from overseas,
> similar to what was experienced between Europe and the US during the
> late 1990's.

However, what constitutes this traffic? Is it local content held abroad or
is it genuinely content that cannot otherwise be obtained/generated locally.
If it is local content held abroad, of which I am convinced it is, what is
the best solution pre-2030: more fiber - both under sea and terrestrial,
more redundant landing stations, better behaved shipping lines or more
capacity and enabling environment for local hosting and local content
providers? 

Considering a typical case where my suppliers are in Kenya, my means of
production is in Kenya, my clients are in Kenya with an occasionally client
or two from abroad. If I had an extra shilling to spend on my business, what
would make more sense, reengineer my offering to attract more international
clients or strengthen my local offering? 

How is it that we are comfortable with our top publicly listed telco,
Safaricom delivering traffic to our top publicly listed media house in the
UK? What ought to be the focus of our policy makers, regulators and
licensors: facilitating scenarios as these or formulating ways to reverse
such? Are there any benefits of such traffic transactions happening here in
Kenya say at KIXP? How much would it cost say Safaricom to host say NMG's
suite of websites, even if free of charge, verses how much does it cost them
in terms of procured capacity, to deliver NMG bound traffic to the UK? Are
there any short/long term benefits? Can both firms and others be given tax
incentives to facilitate the above as opposed draining money on software
certifications, a duplication of what more tax-payer money is already
successfully doing at public universities?

-- 

Growing up in the seventies and eighties was interesting... Across all homes
I knew, my friends, my cousins and even the one I grew up in, the best of
everything was not for regular use by the "locals". The best cutlery, the
best linen, we even had a term "Sunday Best" to describe that one Kaunda
suit that could only be worn on Sundays. Chicken was only to be served when
there were visitors (read "foreigners").  Back then, things were done more
for the benefit of "foreigners" than for the benefit of "locals" - or how do
you explain those grandiose wooden chests in the living room with all manner
of expensive cutlery on display while "locals" made do with plastic cups and
recycled blue-band tins.

Fast forward 30 years, and yes only time has "changed". We the lads and
lasses growing up in the seventies and eighties are now in our  30s, 40s and
50s and yes, we are policy makers but as you know old habits die hard and so
do bad ones. Our preoccupation is on how to better facilitate delivery of
traffic abroad for what has been generated locally and is to be consumed
within our borders. This we see as good practice: pay for export of our
locally produced content and pay some more for its delivery back home
unmodified for consumption. We see no problem giving a foreign company most
of our government data via opendata because they are more competent than
locals in deciphering and analyzing the data on and about the locals

Why are we so preoccupied with the international market as though there are
no business opportunities for locals?

If indeed ICT and ecommerce is the next economic frontier, "naomba
sirkal"... Nkt!

Regards

-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+eugene=synergy.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+eugene=synergy.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Michuki Mwangi
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 12:10 PM
To: Eugene Lidede
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] TEAMS | EASSY Fibre Cables Cut? SEACOM | LION?

On 2/28/12 9:06 AM, James Mbugua wrote:
> Brian
> 
> TEAMS general manager Joel Tanui said it will take three weeks
> although that may be to avoid over promising.
> 
> I'm told Eassy also has a cut near Djibouti and is currently being
repaired.
> 
> Operators now have no option but to switch to the very expensive
> Seacom. By some accounts it is three times as expensive as TEAMS.
> 
> Safaricom which carries 80 per cent of Kenya's internet traffic
> usually has 50 per cent going through TEAMS and has switched this to
> Seacom.
> 

IMHO we need to have a clearer understanding of the bigger picture to
set the long term goals and objectives.

1. Today we import more than 80% of the Internet traffic consumed in
Kenya causing an "Internet Transit Deficit" where significantly less
Internet traffic is generated locally than accessed from overseas,
similar to what was experienced between Europe and the US during the
late 1990's.

2. We are dependent on a single East-Bound path from "Nairobi - Mombasa
- (Mumbai/Fujaira) before going to Europe. This is despite the fact that
we have terrestrial capacity from Cape Town to Cairo to provide an
North-bound path that would complement the longer path.

3. The BBC article did not mention that, with the Submarine cable cuts
the Internet traffic between the East African Countries Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda, Rwanda are most adversely affected. My current tests are showing
over 1sec latency from Nairobi to some networks in Tanzania, Rwanda and
Uganda. This is despite the reality that Uganda and Rwanda are largely
dependent on the terrestrial cables passing through Kenya onto the cables.

4. South bound Internet traffic (to Southern Africa) has acquires
satellite like latencies (higher than 500ms). As a result of the cable
cuts. There's more than sufficient capacity terrestrially but we still
have to go to Europe before going back South.

If we can work towards resolving the above issues with concrete plans
and solutions. It's likely that such cable cuts in the future will not
cause the level of attention and anxiety that we see are experiencing today.

My 2 cents.

Regards,

Michuki.

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