Kenya taps French-American firm to build undersea cable

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Kenya has tapped a French-US telecoms giant to build an undersea fibre-optic cable linking east Africa to the rest of the world in a bid to slash the cost of international calls and Internet access, an official said on Thursday.

Information Ministry Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said the contract with Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent would be signed within 14 days and work was expected to start immediately.

"(It) won the tender because of the price they quoted and also the schedule. They had indicated that (it was) likely to complete the construction of the undersea cable seven months ahead of others," Ndemo told a press conference.

Alcatel-Lucent, formed in late 2006 through the merger of Alcatel of Franceand Lucent of the United States, edged out Tyco Telecommunication, Fujistu, NEC and Huawei Technologies to take the contract.

The 5.5 billion shillings ($82 million) East African Marine Systems (TEAMS) project would link the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, United Arab Emirates.

The high-capacity cable is expected to be finished by mid-2009, Ndemo said.

The Kenyan government will hold 40 percent stake, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat would hold 15 percent, while the remaining 45 percent would be open to neighbouring states or Kenyan investors.

Despite infrastructure improvements, notably in more Africa's more developed nations, only 2.5 percent of Africans have Internet access compared to 17.8 percent in the rest of the world.

Officials say Kenya, the biggest economy in east Africa, is keen on creating communications links as soon as possible to market itself as a centre for business outsourcing, like India.

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