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Question of the Day: What is your non-negotiable item, device, or app for international travel?
Kenya to build undersea cable
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Vox Populi Vox Dei
High Tory
No - it's still on track
http://www.southafrica.info/doing_business/economy/infrastructure/eassy.htm
Hmmmm.... would be nice if we could vote with our money.....imagine a provider in SA that's hooked up to the Kenyan cable (doesn't the ECA allow for this now?). The rates will be a heck of a lot cheaper than what they will be in SA, the money also won't be going to Govt/Telkom (apart from taxes which will be minimal b/c of the costs) - the biggest bonus of all!!!
scatlett
Senior Member
Why do we need to wait for our African partners? Surely SA could afford R1 billion to create our own cable with no other landing points?
Telkom could pay for it easily with some of the billions they made last year.
Telkom could pay for it easily with some of the billions they made last year.
Could but wont. Surely at least this must be obvious by now.
Ja telkom - create a scarcity where there is none - to drive up prices and control the market. DOGS. And take all profit for yourself with your stranglehold on the pipes - the worst of South African - a throwback to an ancient past.
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But would you want them ransoming us with controlling interest in another cable? No thanks.
Two small problems - first is the distance between SA and Kenya - line of sight distance between Durban and Mombassa is about 3000km.
Second, do you really think Kenya would let SA hook on?
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line of sight distance between Durban and Mombassa is about 3000km
Funny man. LOL
Possible perhaps with lasers, but I doubt likely in the next couple of years
http://www.rp-photonics.com/free_space_optical_communications.html
Well to be fair I wasnt suggesting wifi links - I was just too lazy to measure the distance a submerged cable would have to take Add a few hundred more km's on for that. 3000km's is a fair distance to consider.
My second point was the more salient one - SA has been such a spanner in the eassy works that I have to wonder if Kenya would want SA to leech off the bandwidth they're working so hard to get.
Add a few hundred more km's on for that. 3000km's is a fair distance to consider. My second point was the more salient one - SA has been such a spanner in the eassy works that I have to wonder if Kenya would want SA to leech off the bandwidth they're working so hard to get.
I'm sure they would - probably at the same cost Telkom was hoping to charge
kaspaas
Expert Member
line of sight distance between Durban and Mombassa is about 3000km
Funny man. LOL
There is no line of sight between Durban and Mombassa :-(
Unless you are a supported of the flat earth theory
yah i knew that, but it would be the longest ever
No. All traffic out of the country must be switched through the landing points on the Sat3 cable or via satellite with the necessary licenses. Telkom has current monopoly on the prior, while a couple of providers (including Sentech) have suitable licenses and infrastructure for the latter.
If Kenya build their own cable, and Easy goes ahead, then at least there will be more bandwidth available to Africa, which is a good starting point.
True, the distance between the 2 countries is a technological challenge. Apart from fibre (probably not an option for smaller companies/ISPs), cable and satellite would probably be the only method to overcome this. What's the max range on microwave if you were able to set up a repeater chain? (I know there will be latency)
For the 2nd point I wasn't thinking of SA as a whole but rather as companies or organizations that would appeal to Kenya for access - which in itself would publicly humiliate the SA Govt (DoC) - with companies in it's own borders looking elsewhere for cheaper bandwidth.
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LifelongGamer
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So is this disagreement with Telkom or our DoC ... or both? It makes me wonder on how high the costs will truly be if Kenya feels they won't be low enough and are venturing on their own cable
I must absolutely applaud the long-term, forsight of the Kenyan government. This should shame the South African government as it serves a wonderful example of unification of state and private sectors for the upliftment of the general public in that country. We've been fooling ourselves in believing that South Africa will remain the Powerhouse of Africa - in-fighting, failed policies, self-enrichment, overcharging of telecoms leading to stifling of the economy, etc. can in one way or another be connected with continued high levels of unemployment, lack of foreign investment, perpetual problem of crime and all basically because the gap between rich and poor is growing in tandem to the gap in the digital divide.
As a proud South African, it shames me that our leaders lack the fortitude and vision / values to serve the country on the whole. The citizens have long been complaining and most seem to have fallen on deaf ears, but it seems our African neighbour (Kenya) has been listening and learning from our mistakes. SA has dropped the ball and will need to work very hard to make up for it.
Well said LLG!
I really don't believe anything the DoC says anymore.
Perhaps we should rather try and solicit an official statement from the Kenyan ministry (edit: while offering a vote of confidence from MyADSL regarding their initiative), rather than some nonsense from Ivy and her henchmen.
I really don't believe anything the DoC says anymore.
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