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Tag Archive for: Mozambique

Kenyan undersea cable goes live in April

The Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2), Kenya’s fourth submarine cable, will become fully operational in April this year, the local telecommunications ministry revealed on Thursday.

Map outlying the LION2 undersea cable

The LION2 cable is a 3000 km line extending from Nyali, via the island of Mayotte, located in the northern Mozambique Channel from Mauritius and is set to significantly boost the nation’s bandwidth. Kenya already enjoys connectivity through The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM.

Orange Kenya, involved with laying cables via its parent company, France Telecom, confirmed the schedule, adding that the cable arrived in Mombasa in December last year and is awaiting connection. Work continues to finish the cable’s connection at the Mombasa landing station, the company said.

Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo, Orange Kenya’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, told reporters that progress on LION 2 “is on target”. Orange said the construction of the 1.28 Tbps cable “is expected to cost approximately KES 6.2 billion.”

According to reports, the cable is part of a bigger project by France Telecom and 12 members of the Lower Indian Ocean Network to build a submarine cable linking Madagascar to the rest of the world via Reunion Island and Mauritius.

Samuel Poghisio, Kenyan Information Minister, said he was confident that “once it is switched on, LION2 will intensify competition in the industry and help further lower Internet connectivity charges”.

Joseph Mayton

February 24, 2012/by actualize

Mozambique gets a slice of SEACOM

The Mozambican Ministry of Science and Technology has signed a 20 year agreement to access international broadband fibre connectivity on the SEACOM network to Europe and onwards to the rest of the world.

SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Mark Simpson (image: mybroadband)

Beneficiaries of the newly acquired capacity include the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet) and the Government Electronic Network (GovNet), which are government-led projects established to improve online public service access and capability.

The bandwidth will help MoRENet to deliver reliable and cost-effective, high-speed internet traffic to member institutions whilst creating the platform to share education and research content with other Nationwide Research Education Networks (NRENs) around the world.

Similarly, GovNet will be able to better support its mandate to improve eGovernment performance. GovNet currently interconnects government institutions at both central and provincial levels, with an aim to connect all state and government institutions through a single private data communications network.

SEACOM CEO, Mark Simpson, said: “SEACOM is the ideal partner to provide the international connectivity that will complement Mozambique’s extensive broadband data communications networks initiatives. Over the past three years, we have witnessed how the availability of true broadband at lower prices can accelerate educational initiatives and economic development across the region and we look forward to working with the Mozambican government to help Build a truly African Internet.”

Both MoRENet and GovNet form an important part of the Mozambican government’s ICT Policy Implementation Strategy. The policy covers all major areas of Mozambique’s economy and society; tasked with creating an enabling environment for societal upliftment, improved performance of both public and private sectors and most importantly the ultimate eradication of poverty in the country.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Evaristo Baquete, said: “The Mozambican government views affordable and high quality data networks as a vital tool to achieve the country’s various developmental goals. SEACOM brought cheaper and faster international connectivity to this country and we believe that they are the partner of choice to continue to bring about positive changes to the country and its people.”

SEACOM believes in a world where the African internet experience is characterised by abundant local content, minimal latency, fast download and streaming speeds, and interconnected African markets. Today, over a dozen countries across the African continent have access to SEACOM’s low cost products and services via its extended network.

Staff writer

January 31, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Video: SEACOM cable upgrade

Standard Group Kenya’s KTN Business recently aired a video segment on Seacom’s planned upgrade of its undersea cable to cope with growing demand on the eastern seaboard of Africa. Mark Simpson, the new Chief Executive Officer at SEACOM, says that the advent of 4G services will mean that additional demand for broadband will flourish in the near future. He also adds:

a major challenge of SEACOM is reliability of the fiber-optic cable
partners must understand maintenance and security challenges of fibre
Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania government & private consortia should be watched closely – could be promising example for others

September 27, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Legal & Regulatory, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mozambique Socially Invests in ICTs for Rural Development

While recent studies in the developed world show that the Internet actual reinforces economic disparity and even social classes, Mozambique is taking a unique approach to utilize information and communication technologies (ICTs) to break down economic and social disparity.

The government signed a memorandum of understanding with a domestic service provider, MCEL, to roll out Internet and mobile services specifically in rural areas. The two allocated $255 to this effort.

Current Internet penetration in Mozambique is only at 2.7% (2010 data), and mobile penetration is at 26% (2009 data), slightly lower than its neighbors. As can be seen on the following map, coverage is limited in Mozambique.

It is surprising, then, that the government is taking specific action to bring Internet and mobile access to rural populations, since penetration in urban areas is still quite low. People in urban areas arguably have greater need for the Internet and mobile services for their jobs, while rural people tend to communicate less with others and focus on agricultural production.

Photo: Mark.W.E

The expansion of ICT services to rural Mozambique can stimulate human development in rural areas, however, when used correctly. There are plenty of applications that apply particularly to rural peoples, like mHealth and mAgriculture such as Esoko and Medic Mobile. The Mozambique government is hoping that an increase in ICT access in rural areas will stimulate human development there, which will in turn raise the economy and eliminate disparity.

In other words, Mozambique’s ICT policy displays the fact that it has different development priorities than many other developing countries. If they were totally focused on economic growth, they would use their funds to increase connectivity and ICT services in urban areas, which would increase the use of ICTs by those who are most likely to use ICTs for business endeavors. However, Mozambique is instead utilizing their ICT funds for social goals, like helping the poorest of the poor. Many countries talk about bringing access to the poor through their Universal Access Funds, but Mozambique is actually funding socially-justifiable ICT programs over economically-justifiable ones. They deserve a round of applause.

August 3, 2011/by actualize

Tag Archive for: Mozambique

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