Submarine Fiber-optic Cable Connectivity in the Balance

HANA, 30 May 2006.

Efforts to complete the encircling of Africa by a modern submarine fiber optic telecommunication could suffer a major blow if the parties involved fail to reach an agreement in the near future. By: Alari Alare Kenneth

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Efforts to complete the encircling of Africa by a modern submarine fiber optic telecommunication cable could suffer a major blow if the parties involved fail to reach an agreement in the near future.

Following the successful implementation of SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, providing high quality and high bandwidth telecommunications services to Western and Southern Africa, and with Northern Africa served by a number of other submarine cable systems, the next logical step is to provide the East Coast of Africa with submarine fiber-optic cable connectivity. This will complete the encircling of Africa by a modern submarine fiber optic telecommunications network.

However, this could be hampered by a few factors at play, one being that the project is a joint initiative between governments and private telcos including the incumbents in participating countries.

EASSy is expected to establish an undersea cable system to connect the region with the rest of the world. EASSy should be commercially viable to provide the owners with opportunities to benefit directly from the international traffic.

It is anticipated that by the time fiber cable lands at the coastal city of Mombasa in Kenya, a backhaul (local) transmission link will have been laid to further link Uganda through Malaba.

According Peter K Kenduiywo Telkom Kenya, linking the hinterland will through the East Africa Digital Transmission System (EADTS) forming the Kenya ? Uganda backhaul (local) transmission link.

"The basic EADTS configuration is a SDH transmission system, from Mombasa to Malaba through Nairobi with Spurs to major towns within the country", he said.

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From Mombasa, it will pass through towns including Voi, Mtito-Andei, Nairobi, Longonot, Naivasha, Nakuru, Kericho, Timboroa, Eldoret, Muhoroni, Kisumu, Bungoma and finally Malaba to link Uganda.

However, the project's groundbreaking, which was scheduled for March this year, is yet to take place with well-placed sources saying that the slim financial base is casting dark clouds over the completion of the huge project.

The consortium has so far raised only US$ 110 million out of the required US$ 290 to stay on schedule. This due to the fact that some of the members in consortium are state owned incumbent telcos struggling to stay afloat while others heavily depend on their cash strapped governments for financing.

The other issue posing a lot of challenge to the success of the project is the model of ownership. While one group is pushing for open access on grounds of affordability, another group is pushing for a closed model arguing that the project should be operated fully as a commercial venture.

While giving his views to Hana, Joseph Mucheru, the immediate former chairman of the Telecommunications Service Providers of Kenya (TESPOK) and a director with the biggest Internet Service Provider in Kenya, Wananchi Online told us that EASSy should be run like a business entity, "Am not entirely sure about the whole definitions of Open or Closed access, stakeholders better adopt an hybrid model. This is because I think profits are important for the sustainability of any business/project and unless this services will be provided for free it is important to ensure a business model is adopted and not just a social model", said Mucheru.

However, an industry player and a member of the WGIG (Working Group on Internet Governance) ahead of last year's WSIS Waundo Siganga also the chairman of the Computer of Kenya has shown his support for the Open Access model, "EASSy should adopt an Open Access Model so that all investors have equal opportunity and rights". He adds that the World Bank should be involved as a debt financier to the project.

Debate is currently raging as to whether EASSy should be built along an Open Access model, or should be closely controlled by the operators and investors that will inject funds in it. The view of the World Bank, which is eager to provide loan financing to the cable system, is that EASSy will deliver better value to users in Eastern and Southern Africa if it is built and run along the Open Access model.

The World Bank has said it wants the cable to be accessible to anybody who is not an investor in EASSy, but in future wants to use the cable. It says those operators should access the EASSy system at rates and terms comparable to those at which investors in EASSy access it.

Under the Open Access model, EASSy would be owned by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), meaning a company that would sell bandwidth to whoever wants to buy it. This SPV would not offer telecoms services as that would place it an advantage compared to other users of the EASSy bandwidth.

The MoU partners reject this argument. Instead, they propose that new operators intending to benefit from the cable should invest in it too.

At one point, Mucheru posed, "The World Bank involvement in what way. And to serve what purpose, as a bank they can either give loans or grants, and it is not clear to me what the funding mechanism the consortium has chosen and therefore cannot answer this question."

He adds: "EASSy should be a business like any other and be allowed to have competitors. This is the only way to ensure the regions benefits and does not support another monopoly model, it can be an expensive mistake".

What about Nepads involvement; "Nepad should not be responsible for developing a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) managing the financing process. They should also not be involved in choosing board members for the EASSy SPV", says Waundo who sat on the Working Group on Internet Governance.

A group of big telecommunication firms are pushing for the Sat 3 model whose monopolist structure has not helped kept the cost of telecommunication down in the west and southern African region.

While the battle on the model continues, Kenya Data Network (KDN) who is also one the consortium members is busy laying out fiber optic in Kenya hoping that by the time EASSy lands in Mombasa, they would have completed the project that should see fiber optic link between the port of Mombasa traversing through Kenya's hinterland all the way to Kenya Uganda border.

Source: Highway Africa News Agency <http://hana.ru.ac.za/> (Free subscription is required).

------------------------------------------------------ Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director Association for Progressive Communications anriette@apc.org http://www.apc.org PO Box 29755, Melville, South Africa. 2109 Tel. 27 11 726 1692 Fax 27 11 726 1692

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