The e-Africa Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with 5-P Holdings to construct a $2bn undersea cable system planned to encircle Africa with connections to Europe, South America, India and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The MoU provides a framework for collaboration between the commission’s parent organisation, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and 5-P Holdings for the financing, design and implementation of the fibre-optic network, according to Henry Chasia, chairman of the e-Africa Commission.<\/p>\n
The completion of the 50 000km cable is expected to help reduce telecommunications rates, which have been a barrier to business development in Africa.<\/p>\n
The cable will provide landing points to every coastal and island country in Africa, including those countries that are currently not serviced by other cable networks.<\/p>\n
The signing of the MoU follows the endorsement of the project by information and communication technology ministers and experts from eastern and Southern Africa at a meeting in Johannesburg last month. The ministers called for the speedy implementation of the cable project.<\/p>\n
The financial details of the deal are still sketchy but 5-P Holdings, in the US, has so far been assured that it will have a 25%share of the cable project. The majority of the shares in the cable are African-owned, a strategy Nepad says will make it easy to control the pricing of the bandwidth.<\/p>\n
According to the MoU, 5-P Holdings will also look for investors interested in investing in the cable.<\/p>\n
Africa’s longest cable will have a capacity of 3,84Tbps, and will be operational by the first quarter of 2010.<\/p>\n
The cable has been dubbed Uhurunet, derived from a term for independence in Kiswahili, one of the African languages.<\/p>\n