Jamii activates fibre optic link over power lines

Internet communication between Mombasa and Nairobi is expected to improve following the activation of a fibre optic link over Kenya Power and Lighting Company lines by an infrastructure provider— Jamii Telecoms.

This will provide more reliable and faster internet connectivity between Mombasa, the sea entry to East Africa, and Nairobi.

The two towns account for about 95 per cent of internet traffic in Kenya.

Jamii Telecom Ltd is among the three companies that won the tender to lease the excess fibre optic bandwidth capacity from KPLC together with Safaricom Ltd and Wananchi Group.

The utility’s cable covers routes from Kipevu in Mombasa to Nairobi and from Nairobi to parts of the Mount Kenya region.

It runs up to Eldoret, Muhoroni, Kisii and to Tororo in Uganda. All the routes will be ready for use by June, 2010.

Safaricom signed up for a pair of the fibres in a 20-year lease on the Nairobi-Mombasa line for Sh288 million, while Wananchi group and Jamii Telecom Ltd, in a five-year renewable lease of one pair of fibres each, will pay Sh27 million a year.

Jamii becomes the first company to activate the Mombasa Nairobi route, setting the stage for competition with the other two, Kenya Data Network and Telkom Kenya Ltd.

The two have been providing the high speed connection through the terrestrial fibre which is prone to vandalism.

Vandalism has not only resulted in interruption of business but also increased maintenance costs and the costs of providing security along the terrestrial cable lines .

But this is set to change as companies start using the cable over power line.

Mr Joshua Chepkwony the chairman of Jamii Telecommunication Ltd, says the fibre over power line now provides organisations and business enterprises with more reliable connectivity and which will guarantee them value for their money.

“The fibre over power lines will provide businesses with a physical diversity thus promising a more reliable connectivity compared to the terrestrial fibre connection,” said Mr Chepkwony.

The connection also comes as Kenya and other regional countries need to get the international undersea fibre optic capacity from the coast to other major towns within the region.

The region is connected to two undersea cables—Seacom and TEAMs— but currently relies only on the terrestrial connectivity to link to other parts of the country.

Other than providing a reliable connection, through the use of fibre over the KPLC power lines, it is also set to trigger a price war in the sector.

Jamii, however, is yet to release its prices but says it will not only offer lower rates than those currently in the market but consumers will also get value for their money by ensuring uptimes.

Reliable connectivity

Early this month, Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Michael Ghossein said the company had lost Sh2.5 billion ($32.79 million) due to the vandalism of its cables in the past two years.

Reliable connectivity is also set to change how traders or learning institutions conduct their businesses.

For example, a teacher can now deliver his lectures to a group of students in different satellite universities at the same time.

Banks will also be able to construct disaster recovery centres in remote location.

This will also help them to decide which areas are conducive by factoring in other costs such as prices of land.

Other services that require stable and more reliable internet connection that can reap big from such connectivity are telemedicine and government- related online services.

This will also unlock internet potential and help reduce incident of cable vandalism that have become the main threat to the industry.

The KPLC fibre optic cable project is part of a Sh10 billion Energy Sector Recovery Project started in 2006.

At a cost of Sh1.9 billion, the programme entails installation of fibre on the firm’s transmission lines, thereby forming a national fibre optic backbone.