Dear Yawe, I am sorry for assuming that you were aware of the National Optic Fibre Broadband network that is being built by Sagem, Huaweii and ZTE. The project will be finished by August next year. The Digital Village project will benefit from this network that is to link all District HQs. The netwotk shall be run by the operators and hopefully take control of it if they see a business case in it. Otherwise this was basically the Government wide area network. We are now hoping that operators would come up with the last mile solutions. Phase two of our plans is to partner with the private sector to build data centers and disaster recovery centers. This will ensure cheaper local hosting capability. The biggest challenge is going to be local content. On the Government side, by June next year we should have tons of content online. We need to pass the Freedom of Information Bill for the public to benefit from most of GoK data. We shall still need the international Fibre optic for research to both ends, that is, the rest of the world and our own research. We cannot develop on a cocoon. I hope I have responded to your questions. If you are not satisfied, please let me know. Asante sana. Bitange Ndemo.

Dr Ndemo,

You have not answered our concern yet on why we need the marine cable to bring us high speed Internet yet as a country we do not have a cost effective national high speed network?

The diaspora makes up less than 5% of the population and many of them add no value to us, yet you are more concerned about how we can communicate with them instead of how to make it possible for my children to talk and see their grandmother in Mbita point without requiring to make the trip.

As a democracy I believe our interest should be to serve the greater population than a few out there.

I have been looking at the cost of AGM's for listed companies and it is a major drain on this organisations, if you and your team could concentrate on a fiber link to all provincial head quarters we can have the next Kengen AGM held virtually with participants in centers closest to them, to me this would be a greater utilisation of connectivity than being able to talk cheaply to my sister in the US who none the less is too busy working 3 jobs to have time to talk to me regularly irrespective of cost.

So Dr. Ndemo gives us a more compelling reason for the fibre optic cable.

Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 KEnya Tel: +254722511225

----- Original Message ---- From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Monday, 26 November, 2007 9:13:57 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fibre Optic

Dear Yawe, Gakuru, I promised to respond to the question as to whether we indeed need Fibre Optic Cables. Yes indeed we need them for the time being (Intel shall be commecializing [in 10 years time]a chip with the capability to send data at high speeds without any cables)(see NY Times summary article below).

In as much as I do not like cables for connectivity I think they are a necessary infrastructure at the moment. The benefits are immense as I look forward to greater linkages with our increasingly important relatives in the diaspora.

With efficient connectivity, there we create opportunities such as localised news that is accessible to anyone everywhere; we shall enable innovation and more importantly create jobs for our youth. The difference here is that some may see entrepreneurial opportunities that come with this infrastructure and unfortunately some will simply watch as events unfold. Fortunately, you only need a few (Steve jobs, Bill Gates etc) to innovate and exploit the opportunity once access to technology is availed.

Our role is to facilitate our people to reach their fullest potential. This is what leadership is all about.

Bitange Ndemo.

A Chip That Can Transfer Data Using Laser Light New York Times:

The advance will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design.

A Tiny Laser on a Silicon Chip As a result, chip makers may be able to put the high-speed data communications industry on the same curve of increased processing speed and diminishing costs — the phenomenon known as Moore’s law — that has driven the computer industry for the last four decades.

The development is a result of research at Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Commercializing the new technology may not happen before the end of the decade, but the prospect of being able to place hundreds or thousands of data-carrying light beams on standard industry chips is certain to shake up both the communications and computer industries.

_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

This message was sent to: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.u...

___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"