Foreign Navies Keep Kenya’s Broadband plans on Track

Posted by Staff Writer on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 4:56pm.

While the showdown between the United States Navy and Somali pirates  brought the reality of the existing threat posed to ships passing through the Gulf of Aden to life for all of us, Kenya was taking steps to secure a vessel laying an undersea high-speed internet cable from pirates.

According to the Kenyan Minister for Information and Communications, Mr. Samuel Poghisio, the coalition of Navies patrolling the area have agreed to protect the ship laying cable off the coast of Kenya.

The Minister says, the project is on track and the cable should reach land on schedule, in June of this year.  This is particularly good news to the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Telecoms Industries in East Africa which are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries through major cost reductions, making them more competitive globally.

The cable will link Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa with the United Arab Emirates.  This will be East Africa’s first attempt at a telecoms link with the rest of the world that is not satellite.  Most African countries currently rely on expensive satellite systems.

Kenyan company, Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has been laying cable throughout the country in preparation for the link due later this year.  The connection should result in an increase in the use of under subscribed landlines in Kenya.  Interestingly enough, KDN has also offered rural schools and internet cafes that qualify free access to their network when it goes live.  An important move as several African countries vie to be the Silicon Alley of the continent.