Undersea Cable To Link E. Africa, Europe
A consortium of companies planning an undersea cable linking eastern Africa with Europe on Monday won the funding it needed to start construction, a move organizers said will bring this part of the world affordable and reliable telecommunications for the first time.
Five development finance institutions agreed to loan the consortium a total of 70,7 million US dollar.
The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) has been working on the 235 million dollar fiber-optic cable project for five years, said Lars Thunell, the Executive Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank.
Some 11 state telecommunication companies across Africa are each contributing between 10 million and 30 million dollar alongside 25 private telecommunication firms which are each contributing between 2,5 million and 7,5 million dollar, Chair of the EASSy Consortium, Sammy Kirui said.
The EASSy project will cover 21 states in eastern and southern Africa, linking a combined population of 250 million and covering 10.000 km. The backhaul bit of the project will link the landlocked states in the region, from South Africa to Somalia.
Construction work will start in mid-December and the cable is expected to be ready for commissioning in the first quarter of 2009, added Kirui, also managing director state-owned Telkom Kenya.
The EASSy project had been delayed over disagreements between member nations over its financing, access and management. Among the countries in the project are Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa. Others include the DR Congo (former Zaire), Ethiopia, Mauritius and Zambia.
Landlocked countries will access the cable through terrestrial fiber optic networks connected to six landing points along the coast.
The cable is meant to help reduce internet connection costs, which IFC says cost consumers on Africas East Coast dearly every month.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
