Kenya: Fibre optic cable almost reaches telephone house 'we expect a lot of movement to take place in the month of April' Coastweek -- A timetable for the roll-out of the TEAMS (The East African Marine Systems) cable has been released by contractors, Alcatel Submarines Network Systems. According to Mr. Nzioka Waita, a TEAMS board member and Safaricom's Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, "we expect a lot of movement to take place in the month of April." Activities lined up for April include the completion of loading and commencement of the dropping of the cable, a visit to Fujairah by the TEAMS board members to inspect the equipment before the ship starts laying the cable in the sea. Waita was speaking in Mombasa yesterday after a TEAM's board of directors' inspection of the terminal equipment, housed in the equipment room and landing station room situated in Telephone House on Moi Avenue. Terminal equipment is what is necessary to light the entire length of the cable and to provide a point of connection for the submarine cable to the terrestrial infrastructure in the country. They include power feeding equipment, transmission equipment, SDH and network monitoring equipment. "We are fairly confident the equipment room is now ready to be handed over to the contractor to begin the installation of equipment for the landing station," said Waita who was accompanied by Mr. Victor Kyalo from the Kenya ICT Board, who is also seconded to TEAMS as the Acting CEO and Project Manager. The equipment is already in Kenya awaiting clearance, while the Alcatel Contractors who will do the installation are also in the country and waiting to be handed over the room. "We just want to tell everyone interested in the TEAMS project that everything is on track and we are receiving a lot of co-operation from shareholders to make sure the project happens in time and within the budget," said Waita. The US $ 130 million TEAMS project shareholding ratio includes: Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and the Government of Kenya all with 20 per cent of the shares, (KDN) Kenya Data Network with 10 per cent, Wananchi Online with five per cent; Jamii Telkom; 3.5 per cent and Access Kenya and Flashcom; 1.25 per cent. Others are Econet and Africa Fibre Net of Uganda. The Kenyan shareholders have pledged US $ 110 million (Sh8.6 billion) while the difference will be raised by Dubai Telecom Operator, Etisalat. Waita said the project has all requisite permits and approvals from (NEMA), the National Environment Management Agency which were received in November last year. coast week.... __._,_.___