A broadband undersea cable that could provide eastern Africa with the first inexpensive but quick telecommunications connection will be completed in 2010, a Rwanda mobile operator said.
The much-delayed East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) will run between South Africa and Sudan and is designed to bring fast and cheap bandwidth to at least 23 African countries.
“EASSy has two components. The sea cable will be completed by 2010,” Themba Khumalo, the chief executive of MTN in Rwanda, said on Friday.
“The terrestrial part is currently being executed, a good portion is already completed. There are a few links under planning but they will be done way before the 2010 timeline,” he said.
The project has been delayed for years because of wrangles between officials of the nations involved.
Among the countries in the project are Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa. Others include Ethiopia, Mauritius, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last November, the plan received a $70.7m loan from a group of financiers including the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the African Development Bank.
It will cost over $200 million but private telecom operators are expected to provide the rest of the financing and run the cable as a consortium.
South Africa’s MTN group is one of the firms with a stake in the cable, whose manufacture has already begun, Khumalo said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the first joint East African Community bloc investment forum where over 1,000 local and foreign investors and government officials gathered to discuss opportunities.
“EASSy will be our own network, owned by the same operators from eastern and southern central Africa, which will have control on the cost, which will be even lower over the network,” Khumalo said.
The cable will reach landlocked nations such as Rwanda through terrestrial fibre optic networks connected to six landing points along the coast.
“We see ourselves finishing the terrestrial part earlier than the undersea cable so we can start using it between countries to improve connectivity and reduce cost of bandwidth between countries.”
Kenya has launched a separate cable project known as The East African Marine System linking its coast to the United Arab Emirates.
Another project, the Sea Cable System (SEACOM), plans to lay another link between South Africa and India via Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania.
Khumalo said the EASSy cable would drop the cost of connectivity for Rwanda’s mobile users.
His company currently has 800,000 subscribers and he expects the number to rise by 60 percent this year.
“It just shows that as we build infrastructure, the economy grows and affordability also increases and there is higher demand for services.”
The company is using Wimax networks in Kigali to provide broadband on a trial basis and expects to lay out a 3G network soon.
