Alex, I did not smell any fish on this deal but I did smell a small rat - and so I had floated the four questions below that were so ably answered by Dr. Ndemo. However, Question 4 answer was not quite clear to me and may linger on... walu. ~~~~~ 1. Will the cable be open for direct connectivity (at the source in MSA) to other future telco players? Ans: Yes 2. Will the price of connecting to the international fiber be driven by profit-motives or will it be based on the 'cost-of-operating-the-fiber' basis. Ans: Connection at MSA will be on cost-recovery basis but Profit element will occur at the retail end of the connection. 3. What modalities exist for future investors who may wish to own part of the fiber maybe 2 or 5years after the cable is operational- or will this thing be a closed-club to the original financiers once the cable becomes operational? Ans: Govt would dilute or divest their shares to new interested investors hence not a 'closed-shop'. 4. What are the steps involved in transparently transferring this public resource into private sector? Ans: Did not quite get a straight answer on this one as copied verbatim below: A: You cannot force anyone to buy into Teams. There are clear deadlines by the financial arranger for making commitments. The Standard Chatered Bank were procured to make financial arrangements for the cable. Although sometimes Media misses the point here and there, it has done a wonderful job keeping us on our toes. walu. -- Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru@yahoo.com> wrote:
Smell something fishy....
<snip> The history of the opening up of the telecommunications sector is littered with cases of manipulation of privatisation to allow insiders and connected operatives to acquire shares they have not paid for. To date, the true owners of an entity by the name Mobitelea Ventures Ltd that indirectly owns a 10 per cent stake in the countrys first ever GSM mobile phone operator, Safaricom Ltd, remains unknown. The investor was procured under the old and opaque privatisation regime.
In the case of Teams, the government last year procured 12 investors who will be allotted shares when the cable goes into operation. Although most of the companies allotted shares are well-known telecommunication companies, a number are nevertheless names that dont resonate.
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