Quiet launch of undersea cable heralds arrival of digital revolution

Save for the grandeur of the presidential entourage that graced the event, June 12 would probably have passed quietly just like any other ordinary Friday.

Yet this was the day President Kibaki had flown to Mombasa to preside over the official launch of the fibre-optic undersea cable — a project whose completion is set to usher in a new era of faster and cheaper internet connectivity in the region.

In Mombasa, the President aptly described the project as another landmark leap in the country’s development history, comparing it only to the completion of the Kenya-Uganda railway line more than one century ago.

“This comparison is not far-fetched because while the economies of the last century were driven by railway connections, the economies of today are largely driven by the internet and other ICT links,” the President told a crowd in attendance to witness the launch of the East African Marine System’s (TEAMS) fibre optic project.

TEAMs, a partnership between the Government of Kenya and corporate stakeholders is set to connect the East African region with the rest of the world.

To the ICT-savvy world, the arrival of the fibre optic cable in the penultimate year of the first decade of the 21st Century should automatically signal a new beginning for the telecoms sector in general and data services in particular.

This optimism, also shared by the Kenyan government, is not a misplaced one. So far, the Eastern Africa coast has been the longest coastline in the world without a fibre-optic cable connection to the rest of the world.

Simply put, the Eastern African region which has been relying heavily on the expensive and slower satellite connections for internet and telephone calls is now poised to have three undersea cable links to the rest of the world.

This not only means broadband will now be much more readily available at a cheaper costs — consequently reducing telephone services and making it easier to downloads film and audio from the internet — but also, online services such as mobile banking will grow rapidly in the region Other than TEAMs, the privately funded Seacom cable and the World Bank/ Private sector funded East African Marine Cable System (EASSy) are expected to drive the ICT revolution in the region.

On the ground, major internet service providers in Kenya like Kenya Data Networks (KDN) are busy rolling out cables along the country’s highways, in time to link inland stations to the coastline cables.

However, technology watchers in the region are approaching the ongoing ICT revolution with guarded optimism.

While they reckon fibre optics provides the first real opportunity to galvanise efforts aimed at bridging the persistent digital divide between the developed and developing worlds, the country may in future rue its arrival in the region unless citizens are adequately sensitised and prepared to tap its potential.

“Just like the region watched in awe as the Kenya-Uganda railway transported away our raw materials, increased internet connectivity that is expected to come up with the fibre optic capable is likely to open up the region for exploitation by clever entrepreneurs in developed countries unless our people are sufficiently sensitised about the opportunities that it entails,” argues Mr David Owino, the Kenya Data Networks’ chief operating officer.

In his 2009 / 10 budget speech, Finance minister Uhuru Kenya appear to have taken this caution into consideration when he allocated Sh1.3 billion for purchase of Mobile Computer Laboratories for each constituency to be used in IT education.

He also launched a countrywide government-private sector campaign aimed at providing one million laptops to university students, public servants as well as ordinary citizens, to enable them tap into the global grid via the fibre optic cables.