SEACOM – hosted a successful week-long conference last week in Sandton Johannesburg, with a view to sustaining and stimulating economic development on the continent.
Among other key issues the conference deliberated on were ways in which SEACOM could provide high capacity international fibre optic bandwidth along the East Coastal Africa through Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar in connecting with international destinations such as India and France.
According to Linda Carter, a participant at the SEACOM conference, the workshop was a huge success.
“Major players in the communication technology sector attended the conference. Ways on how to curb high costs of international bandwidth has been the major issue. Items regarding government support were also raised,” said Carter.
Companies expressed the hope that prices of internet, telephone calls and bandwidth would drastically go down as a result of this development.
Apart from reducing the telephone and internet costs, the new telecommunications initiative would see many jobs being created in Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar, while new businesses will be encouraged to tape into the modern communication technology if they are to prosper.
Observers agreed that when the SEACOM initiative is complete, a capacity of 1.28 terabits, a SEACOM state-of-the-art cable, would allow bandwidth starved African economies to enjoy HDTV, IPTV and broadband internet prices would go down sharply.
