The Ubuntu Alliance and European research network Dante have commissioned the UbuntuNet network. The network is a a regional high-speed internet network that will connect educators, students and researchers in southern and eastern Africa to their peers both regionally and in Europe.
According to reports, the network has been implemented in two phases. These phases have been based on the readiness of the country that is connecting to the regional network. Block A, which was completed back in February, procured equipment to establish Points of Presence (PoPs) in Mtunzini, Maputo, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kampala and Kigali, and to upgrade the Ubuntunet Alliance PoP in London. High-capacity, cross-border links interconnecting these PoPs to create a regional research network were also procured under this phase, as well as a transcontinental link between Nairobi and the Ubuntunet Alliance’s PoP in Amsterdam.
The first phase serves a total of six NRENs, namely TENET (south Africa), MoRENet (Mozambique), TERNET (Tanzania), KENET (Kenya), RENU (Uganda) and RwEdNet (Rwanda), and forms the backbone on which the network to serve the entire Alliance region will be created.
Block B included procurement of equipment and installation of high capacity cross-border links connecting NRENs including Eb@le (Democratic Republic of Congo), MAREN (Malawi) and ZAMREN (Zambia).
The link between Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Lusaka in Zambia was completed at the end of May. Links from Lusaka to Blantyre in Malawi, and from Cape Town to Moanda in DRC will be completed in the near future.
According allafrica.com, a major immediate impact of the network is that connectivity costs have dropped from a regional average of $4000 per megabit per second per month to $135per megabit per second per month indicating a 97 percent price reduction in just four years!
Chief Executive Officer of UbuntuNet Alliance, Eng. Dr Tusu Tusubira, said: “We are delivering international and regional bandwidth to NRENs in these counties at a consolidated price of $135 per megabit per second per month. I find this exciting, because, at last we have eliminated one barrier to regional participation in global research and education collaboration.”
Bonny Khunga, Zamren CEO, said that: “Apart, from lowering the cost of bandwidth, providing resilience is yet another benefit to the Zamren network. In addition, the new UbuntuNet circuit between Dar es Salam and Lusaka is expected to contribute significantly to improved health research in bioinformatics in Zambia.”
“As you know we have bioinformatics research currently being conducted in Zambia at the Copperbelt University, this is one of the research areas that will benefit from this link,” Khunga concluded.
