EA has to wait longer for Seacom, Teams cables

The first cable is expected to considerably bring down the cost of data. Currently, East Africa is the only region in the world with neither intra-African nor direct access to worldwide international cable networks and instead relies on expensive satellite communication.

Thus, that data costs are among the highest in the world with costs of up $5.000-$7.000 per megabit of bandwidth.

The price is expected to be slashed by as much as 80 per cent.

Unperturbed, the Teams project surveyor, Messel Ole Penmarto said the vessel has already covered 4,700 kilometres and the remaining 300 kilometres will be completed in a week’s time.

Information and Communications Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo was more semantic: “Testing is now underway and it will take another 30-60 days before we go live. However, one would be able to access data by next week, ” he told the EastAfrican.

According to Mr Waruinge, the earliest Kenyans can access data from the cables is late this year.

In the meantime, both projects have issues that needs thrashing before they become operational. Ownership structure and their business models are their main impediment.

Currently Teams is dogged by the hiccup of shareholding. Apparently some investors — the smaller ones — are yet to take up their shares, despite the expiry of the deadline (June 10).

This now means delays as the interested parties are most likely to seek legal redress, which might a long time to settle. There is also the process of competitive bidding in the identification new shareholders.

Shared ownership has also raised concerns over how the government’s promise to deliver affordable bandwidth will be achieved. All the 80 per cent owners of the government stake in Teams are in private sector.

The Kenya government owns 85 per cent of the Teams cable, while the United Arab Emirate’s Etisalat owns the other 5 percent.

Out of the government stake, 80 per cent is held by the private sector, with ownership divided between Safaricom (20 per cent), Telkom Kenya (20 per cent), KDN (20 per cent).

Investors with minority shareholding include, Access Kenya, Inhand Ltd, Equip Ltd, Flashcom and Fibrenet Africa all with a 1.25 per cent stake.

Etsalat is also involved the laying of cable through its affiliate, E Marine ( sub-contracted by Alcatel, the main contractor. O&M, another affiliate providing interconnection.

Asks Mr Waruinge: “Were these contracts procured on an arms-length basis and in accordance with the Public Procurement Rules?