Laying of marine cable set to begin
By Alari Alare
Construction of the East Africa Marine System (Teams) undersea fibre optic cable begins next week.
The Teams cable, which will link the Kenyan coast with the rest of the world, will be built by a French company, Alcatel-Lucent at a cost of $82 million.
Information and Communication minister, Mr Samuel Poghisio, said that laying of the 4,500km cable will start in Fujairah in the United Arabs Emirates and is expected to reach Mombasa by the second quarter of next year.
"I have noted that the ministry is undertaking laying of the fibre optic cable," said Poghisio while taking over office from his predecessor, Mr Mutahi Kagwe. He said the cable would bring down communication costs.
The cable will be a one-fibre pair initially equipped with 40 gigabytes but can be upgraded to 640 gigabytes. It will compete with two other cables — the Eastern Africa Submarine System (Eassy) and the Sea Cable System (Seacom) — both set to link southern and eastern Africa with the rest of the world.
While Teams will run from Mombasa to Fujairah, Eassy is designed to run from Port Mtunzini, near Durban in South Africa, via Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Mogadishu through to Port Sudan.
Seacom on the other hand will run from Mtunzini in South Africa, to Mumbai in India and Marseille in France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania.
Teams will provide affordable international broadband connectivity to Kenya and the Great Lakes region. It will slash bandwidth costs to $400 per megabyte, from between $6,500 and $7,500.
By the time Teams lands in Mombasa, the Government will have completed laying of the terrestrial fibre in the country under the Fibre Optic National Network (Fonn) project set to cover 4,300km.
Poghisio’s disclosure comes a few weeks after the Government announced ceding 20 per cent more shares in the Teams project to private investors.
The Government had initially owned 40 per cent of the cable but demand from the private sector for shareholding forced it to cede half of its ownership.
Last month, the Permanent Secretary in the same ministry, Dr Bitange Ndemo, said demand for capacity from the cable was high.
In the Fonn project, 1,800km of terrestrial cable will run through North Eastern and the Coastal region. It will be constructed by French company, Sagem. The other fibre running through Central Kenya 1,100km will be laid by a Chinese company, Huawei, while the third one estimated to cover 1,400km will be constructed by ZTN also a Chinese firm.
Construction of the East Africa Marine System (Teams) undersea fibre optic cable begins next week.
The Teams cable, which will link the Kenyan coast with the rest of the world, will be built by a French company, Alcatel-Lucent at a cost of $82 million.
Information and Communication minister, Mr Samuel Poghisio, said that laying of the 4,500km cable will start in Fujairah in the United Arabs Emirates and is expected to reach Mombasa by the second quarter of next year.
"I have noted that the ministry is undertaking laying of the fibre optic cable," said Poghisio while taking over office from his predecessor, Mr Mutahi Kagwe. He said the cable would bring down communication costs.
The cable will be a one-fibre pair initially equipped with 40 gigabytes but can be upgraded to 640 gigabytes. It will compete with two other cables — the Eastern Africa Submarine System (Eassy) and the Sea Cable System (Seacom) — both set to link southern and eastern Africa with the rest of the world.
While Teams will run from Mombasa to Fujairah, Eassy is designed to run from Port Mtunzini, near Durban in South Africa, via Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Mogadishu through to Port Sudan.
Seacom on the other hand will run from Mtunzini in South Africa, to Mumbai in India and Marseille in France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania.
Teams will provide affordable international broadband connectivity to Kenya and the Great Lakes region. It will slash bandwidth costs to $400 per megabyte, from between $6,500 and $7,500.
By the time Teams lands in Mombasa, the Government will have completed laying of the terrestrial fibre in the country under the Fibre Optic National Network (Fonn) project set to cover 4,300km.
Poghisio’s disclosure comes a few weeks after the Government announced ceding 20 per cent more shares in the Teams project to private investors.
The Government had initially owned 40 per cent of the cable but demand from the private sector for shareholding forced it to cede half of its ownership.
Last month, the Permanent Secretary in the same ministry, Dr Bitange Ndemo, said demand for capacity from the cable was high.
In the Fonn project, 1,800km of terrestrial cable will run through North Eastern and the Coastal region. It will be constructed by French company, Sagem. The other fibre running through Central Kenya 1,100km will be laid by a Chinese company, Huawei, while the third one estimated to cover 1,400km will be constructed by ZTN also a Chinese firm.
posted by Mwananchi at 4:09 PM
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