Laying Fiber optic cable in Kenya Somali coast is difficult

[Jacaylbaro]

The Kenya Somali coast is proving a difficult route for the laying of the Eastern Africa Fiber optical cable managed by the Kenya government.

In order to catch up with the fast growing developments in other parts of the world, Kenyan Governments decides to support fiber optic communication developments in their land also.

To avoid the politically insecure coast of Somalia, Kenya is seeking an alternative route on which to lay the TEAMs fiber optic cable. The government is considering laying an extra 90 kilometers of fiber to ensure that the cable passes through international waters instead of crossing into Somali territory, said Victor Kyalo, deputy CEO of the Kenya ICT Board.Somalia has been rocked by civil war since 1991 and has since been divided into Somaliland, which claims some authority and South, consisting of Puntland and an area claimed by both the interim government and the Union of Islamic courts.

 

With the confusion over Somalia's leadership, pirates have taken to terrorizing any vessel that dares to venture into Somali waters, making for what the U.S. calls the world's most dangerous coastal region. The laying of the TEAMs (The East African Marine System) cable is scheduled to begin in December, but there are options still to be considered due to security risks, Kyalo told representatives of the five East Africa Community states.

 

Two weeks ago, Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, led a government delegation to the Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks offices in France to inspect progress on cable construction, which Kyalo said is on schedule.

 

The Kenya government owns 85 percent of the cable, while the United Arab Emirate's Etisalat owns 15 percent. Out of the government stake, 80 percent is held by the private sector, with ownership divided between Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, KDN, Econet, Wananchi Telecom, Jamii Telkom, Access, Inhand, Flashcom, Equip and Uganda's Fiber Network.

[nuune]

All I see is dhulkii iyo baddii Soomaaliya oo la dhacey, and now they are raping our coastlines and our sea, not even giving us any stake of it, not even percentage, I propose more Pirates to dismantle any fibre optic that are no use and no faaiido to us, not to our communications or anything else.

[Som@li]

I think there is access in Somalia, but where? and who manages it?

 

 

EASSy Background

EASSy was first articulated at the first East African Business Summit convened in Nairobi in November 2002 and attended by business leaders from Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda. The Summit’s mission was “to bring together a critical mass of the best business minds in our region to engage with key public sector players with a view to catalysing a true economic transformation of East Africa”. According to a “Business Manifesto” adopted at that summit, a fibre-optic maritime cable covering the eastern seaboard of Africa would be installed to benefit countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Mozambique and Zambia. Operators who would initiate the project and form the lead consortium were named as Telkom Kenya, Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), Uganda Telecom (UTL), Mobile Telephone Network (MTN Uganda), Zanzibar Telecom, Nation Media Group, and unspecified data operators.

 

 

The Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy): The Open Access challenges and debate

 

It is time to say goodbye to Satellite dependency.

[H]

Dabdhid there is access is Somalia, actually 3 Telecoms companies (Telsom, Afrol,Telcom) are linking up Hargeisa thru the fibre optic link. The only problem right now is that they are not taking advantage of this technology to the max!, But all in all the browsing speed are near broadband..

[Dhubad.]

^H, are you sure there is Fiber Optic link in Hargaysa or anywhere else in Somalia? I thought the only country in africa with fiber optic link is SA.

[Paragon]

Interesting. A future prospect of sea mining.

[Geel_jire]

Mashalaah this is great news.

 

I am currently working on a project where I am laying 45 Km of fiber cable ... waiting for different regulators to sign off on the digging near power lines .. and inspectors to ensure we are following the electrical and safety code is taking up 80% of the time.

 

imagine none of that bureaucratic sh!t in somalia.

 

and since we don't have billion of investment in existing infrastructure (copper) providing fiber direct from the CO to the home is much easier than it would be in the west.

[Jacaylbaro]

Originally posted by Aw-Dhubad:

^H, are you sure there is Fiber Optic link in Hargaysa or anywhere else in Somalia? I thought the only country in africa with fiber optic link is SA.

You are too much behind sxb ....

 

it is here, next door, Djibouti. That is where the Fiber Obtic is coming now.

 

Agreement has been signed to put one in Berbera but not sure about the implementation.

[Dhubad.]

^ Waaw I didn't know Djibouti has Fibber Optic Link. I went to Kenya recently and the highest internet bandwidth you could buy was 160kbs.

 

JB, Let me get this right, In Somaliland the current internet connection is done through satellite right? And what is the highest internet speed you can get over there?

[H]

Originally posted by Aw-Dhubad:

^H, are you sure there is Fiber Optic link in Hargaysa or anywhere else in Somalia? I thought the only country in africa with fiber optic link is SA.

Yep sxb we get the link via fiber optic backbone, before that our internet was thru sat link... but I'll just need to clarify the method in use at the moment, Fiber optic cable runs upto the Somaliland coast and then the signal is microwaved upto Hargeisa! from there the ISP has the option of either providing to the clients thru DSL, Wireless PTP bridges and so on.

The current speeds are only limited to just around 512 uplink/downlink, which is quite a leap for us guys cuz I remember when we used to be on a not so fast dialup modem not long ago!

 

Originally posted by J.a.c.a.y.l.b.a.r.o:

quote:Originally posted by Aw-Dhubad:

^H, are you sure there is Fiber Optic link in Hargaysa or anywhere else in Somalia? I thought the only country in africa with fiber optic link is SA.

You are too much behind sxb ....

 

it is here, next door, Djibouti. That is where the Fiber Obtic is coming now.

 

Agreement has been signed to put one in Berbera but not sure about the implementation.

JB am well aware of that fact. Djibouti had that fiber optic around there for a long time but they never had much use for it until recently. Our telcoms operators are linking up thru Djibouti

 

Originally posted by Aw-Dhubad:

JB, Let me get this right, In Somaliland the current internet connection is done through satellite right? And what is the highest internet speed you can get over there?

The answer to that varies depending on who we are talking about? Private companies, Organizations?

 

Well some get around 1Mb dedicated, other are on a shared pool of say 512/512 with a shared ratio of 1:8 (that is 8 satellite clients in 1 pool of 512)

[Dhubad.]

^ H, I was talking about general users but thanks for the clarifications.

[Geel_jire]

thanks for the info H.

 

it is not a big deal that the long haul link is fiber .. as it makes the most sense.. but reading the article i assumed they were talking about 'last mile' fiber connections connections directly to homes/business.

 

unlike developed countries who have already sunk billions of dollars into existing infrastructure (copper) .... it is mostly the those large telco's who hamper the efforts of installing last mile fiber .. because they are protecting their initial investement.

 

back home there is nothing like that to worry about .. which is a great opportunity .. imagine something like GPON being installed in hargeisa or a national UPSR or BLSR ring network across the country ... getting the initial $$$ is the only problem i guess

[H]

Aw-Dhubad,Geel_jire, you are both welcome.

 

I truly don’t foresee last mile fiber connections to the client any time soon partly because of the luck of infrastructure, the ability to handle such a large scale project and last but not least the financial part of the whole thing. They still have to tweak whatever is at hand now, deal with the constant cable breakage (this happens often) and then maybe we can expect the next level.

 

I will also add another point which most of you might already know, which is that how can we expect to have a fiber optic link running underground when the local municipality doesn't even have a centralized city wide drainage system?

[N.O.R.F]

Originally posted by Geel_jire:

Mashalaah this is great news.

 

I am currently working on a project where I am laying 45 Km of fiber cable ... waiting for different regulators to sign off on the digging near power lines .. and inspectors to ensure we are following the electrical and safety code is taking up 80% of the time.

 

imagine none of that bureaucratic sh!t in somalia.

That bureaucratic sh*t is exactly whats needed when things settle down. Right of Way will be a BIG issue saxib and I think it will take years to solve some cases.

[Jacaylbaro]

Make sure there will not be fiber cable pirates ,,,