Second phase of Sh6bn fibre optics plan starts

In a bid to bridge the digital divide in the country and lower the capital expenses for IT infrastructure providers, the ICT ministry has embarked on the second phase of the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure in Embu County.

The cable is expected to cover 2,100km and link the all 47 county headquarters, offering redundancy network for phase I links.
Speaking at the launch in Ena Town, Embu County, ICT cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i said that the fibre optic cable would provide the county and national governments high speed Internet access, high speed and reliable connectivity to the national government systems which host the ID, passports, births and deaths registration facilities and the Integrated Financial Management Information System.

Dr Matiang’i said the laying of the cable would employ 1,100 youths in the region.

State-owned Chinese networking and telecoms equipment and service provider Huawei was awarded a Sh6 billion contract to build a national fibre optic infrastructure that will link Nairobi with other towns in the country through wide area network.

Safaricom, Jamii Telecoms and Telkom Kenya are set to save billions of shillings that would have been spent on rolling out fibre optics infrastructure as the government embarks on phase two of its national inland cable project. Each of the private operators would have spent almost an equivalent amount to lay the 1,600km of fibre optic cable.

The project is funded by EXIM Bank of China, through a concessional government-to-government loan agreement whose conditions include awarding the contract to Chinese-owned firm Huawei.

The government plans to use the fibre optic infrastructure to boost delivery of online services and lease the excess capacity to private operators. Some of services set to benefit include filing tax returns and processing of passports.