Cable project mess
Analysts from BMI-T have said what everyone else was thinking — that a government-backed undersea telecoms cable around Africa just isn’t going to happen.
The government has not covered itself in glory in its involvement in the telecoms sector.
The sector would fare much better if the state backed off and let the private sector set the pace. That is true throughout Africa, where liberalisation remains deliberately slow to protect state monopolies.
In theory, the Uhurunet cable will touch about 21 countries — 13 have signed up to support it. The laudable idea is to end Africa’s bandwidth drought by making far more available at vastly lower prices. But there are problems.
First , how likely is it that between 13 and 21 governments will agree on who does what and who pays for what? Hugely unlikely, given the way inter-country talk-shops usually say so much and achieve so little.
Second, there’s the price of $1,4bn. SA’s government says the cable will go live by 2010 if private investors foot 70% of the bill.
It will be a brave and probably foolhardy investor who backs a project involving politicians from a dozen countries.
Moreover, while Uhurunet is still a dream, two private cables are significantly further advanced. Seacom should be operational by June next year, followed by the Eassy cable.
Investors will not be wooed by ambitious government dreams when other projects are becoming reality.
A final hitch is that with cables now being laid by numerous countries, finding a manufacturer with the capacity to build one and a ship with time to lay it is near impossible.
There’s a simple solution: it’s time for governments to abandon their control-freak dreams and do all they can to support private players who are far more able to do the job.
Government and DoC – give your views
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