The East Africa region has been connected to the first fibre optic cable following the arrival of a ship laying the East Africa Marine System (TEAMs) in Mombasa and its launch today (Friday).
However, business organisations and individuals will have to wait for another one month before they can start using the cable. President Kibaki is supposed to launch the cable today at Fort Jesus in Mombasa.
The launch is a culmination of the long awaited undersea fibre optic connection to the region which was the only part of the world missing such a link thus leaving satellite technology as the only means of connecting to the other parts of the world.
TEAMs chairman Michael Joseph says the commercialisation of the cable will have to wait for another one month. The project is a joint venture between the government, Emirates Telecommunication Technology and a consortium of local investors.
The optic cable will connect the East African region to worldwide cable networks.
In Kenya, the cable will greatly improve the internet connectivity and greatly reduce the cost of data transmission and job creation.
With affordable and efficient ICT infrastructure, Kenyans will also be able to venture into the field of business process outsourcing, a rapidly growing global industry.
The ship laying the Sh10.4 billion ( $130 million) undersea fibre optic cable East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) left Fujairah in United Arab Emirates almost to months ago.
Security concerns There had been security concerns following hijacking of ships by pirates along the Somali coastal line may delay landing date, however the government took some security measures such as moving the cable an extra 200 kilometers further into the sea.
The government has also sought security from foreign marine navies. Other than the 5000 kilometers cable, the country will also be connected buy other two cables namely Seacom which is expected by the end of the month and Eassy by the end of next year.
It anticipated that with completion of the undersea cables are expected to reduce the cost of communication in the region, currently operators relay on satellite connectivity that charges them Sh399, 360 ($ 5,000) per megabyte per month but this is expected to reduce to Sh15,974 ($ 200) for the same capacity and put Kenya at par with countries like India and Philippines that it hopes to compete with in the Business Process Outsourcing.
TEAMs cable is yet to issue its bandwidth pricing, however, Seacom has said it will offer wholesale bandwidth at $ 200 per megabyte. The cables will be connected to amongst other terrestrial fibre optic cables , the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI).
Already connected The NOFBI has already connected Kenya’s major towns and border points, while connections to district headquarters was almost complete this will provide links to other small arteries that connect the end users to the main cables.
TEAMS has put a terminal equipment- power feeding and transmission equipment, SDH and network monitoring equipment in Mombasa that will be used 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.
TEAMS project shareholding includes Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and the Government of Kenya.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
