Faults in the SEACOM undersea cable is affecting many services based in the infrastracture in East Africa. Websites and ISPs in India and East Africa are reporting poor connection or unavailability as the maintanance of the SEACOM undersea cable which was expected to complete by 28th April is still ongoing and is now due for completion on 30th April.

This process is being carried by a repair ship which has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will pick up the cable, cut it and bring it onboard to undergo the repair on the optic fibre before the cable is put back in the water. This has  resulted in the power being shut down on the cable for the duration of the repair.

The Island nation of Madagascar has been connected to Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System, EASSy fibre optic cable that connects countries on Africa’s eastern coast to the rest of the world, Telecom Malagasy (Telma) said Saturday.

The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is an initiative to connect countries of eastern Africa via a high bandwidth fibre optic cable system to the rest of the world. It is considered a milestone in the development of information infrastructure in the region.

According to Telma, it has already put in place a national backbone that will enable it to link users to the cable.  Telma has invested 70 Million USD in a 3300km National Fiber Optic Backbone; Telma is also the 5th contributor to the EASSY.

Once users have access to the cable, the island should be able to develop outsourcing activities such as call centres, Telma said.

Twenty-seven operators from 22 countries, both on Africa’s eastern coast and their landlocked neighbours, have joined together in the EASSy project worth some $260m overall.

Madagascar was already connected last year by telecoms operator Orange to the submarine Lion cable, which linked it to two other Indian Ocean islands, Reunion and Mauritius.

Source: News 24

There is news that Safaricom, Jamii Telecomms and Wananchi Group will be leasing Fibre optic line from Kenya Power Lighting Company (KPLC) pair running the 500 km Mombasa – Nairobi.

KPLC says that they have for the rent of the fibre optic, the Nairobi Mombasa route is $32 (Sh2400) per pair per kilometre per month which for 20 years translates to $ 3.9 Million (Sh288 million).

The lease floated last year were in two categories, one for 15 years described as Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) which required the bidder to pay upfront. The other was a five year lease payable bi-annually and renewable after the five year period. Safaricom made a request for 20 years which was accepted by KPLC.

KPLC last year commenced the installation of about 1,500 kms of high quality fibre optic cable on its countrywide transmission network primarily for its own use as part of the implementation of a $ 25 Million (Sh1.9 billion) System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) project. The cable grid has a capacity of 48 fibres out of which KPLC will utilise 12 fibres for its communications needs.