How fibre optic will have you all wired up

“I don’t know what fibre optic cables are all about or how they will affect my life and work,” she confesses, despite working as a cyber cafe attendant.

However, she admits that the internet service of her employer is disappointing to clients because of its low speed, especially during lunch and evening hours. Indeed, she considers the ‘going down’ of the services several times a day as “normal”. According to Ms Kerubo, the thought of a very fast, reliable and cheaper internet connection is too good to be true.

Her perception is not surprising, for many Kenyans like her have been used to slow internet speed, which is not only frustrating, but also expensive, especially to those who use the cyber cafes that charge per minute for their services.

But this situation is about to change after President Kibaki flew to Mombasa last week to officially commission the landing of the East African Marine Systems (Teams) submarine cable from Fujairah in the UAE. In readiness for the landing of Teams and another cable, Seacom, which is also expected to land this month, the government and various service providers have been laying terrestrial cables to various parts of the country.

These include interior places such as Lokitung, Loitoktok, Mandera and Malindi where the government has been laying cables under the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) project. The two cables will further be boosted once the third one, the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (Eassy) coming through Southern Africa lands.

Once hooked into the optic cable, Ms Kerubo’s employer and the country at large are expected to get connection to the rest of the world via higher speed and adequate broadband. Currently, Kenyans use satellite connection, which is expensive and hence offers a limited broadband capacity.

Awareness

However, in what amounts to an indictment to both the government and the private sector players, little seems to have been done to create awareness about the cables even as they land at the country’s coast. “Satellite-based internet connection is unreliable and expensive, but many Kenyans do not know it yet as they have not had a chance to experience anything better,” says Jackline Mwai, the regional sales manager of Seacom.

The fiber optic cable is made of pure glass drawn into a very thin strand, with a thickness comparable to that of a human hair but can transmit digitalised data through light pulses in milliseconds and in very high capacity, allowing more information to be transmitted. One such strand of optical fibre is capable of transmitting 25,000 gigabytes per second of information, which is about three million books per a second.

Unlike the satellite based connection, which is transmitted through out of space stations and are subject to interruptions and data loss, the undersea fibre optic cables’ glass strand is coated in two layers of plastic avoiding any data loss during transmission.

Security

The fibre technology, according to information from Nairobi Stock Exchange-listed ICT firm, AccessKenya, will also allow for secure flow of information as they are more immune to electromagnetic inference, making it harder to tap into. The cables are also not susceptible to weather conditions unlike the satellite based connections, where communication can be affected by dense cloud cover or heavy rainfall.

But perhaps the biggest impact for many Kenyans will be the reduction in the cost of accessing internet. Even though the prices of being connected to the internet have been drastically reducing over past months, it is still remains out of reach to a majority of Kenyans, especially in rural areas.

According to Ms Mwai, the prices of internet connection are expected to reduce by up to 80 per cent. A megabyte of satellite-delivered bandwidth, which currently costs Sh240,000 ($3000), is expected to retail at around Sh32,000 ($400). This will mean that the amount of bandwidth a consumer currently purchases for Sh1,000 from the available providers will go for about Sh200.

While adapting the fibre technology is expected to be a gradual process, it is unclear when these benefits will be fully passed on to the end user. What is important though, is for people to know how to take advantage of the increased capacity. One of the biggest steps being taken is e-governance, which besides letting you keep an eye on the government’s performance, you will be able to take part in the various processes at home or in your neighbourhood.

Visits to government offices to apply for documents like identity cards or passports or register businesses will not be necessary. This will save on time and money wasted on following up such documents. “This will allow Kenyans access to government services more cheaply and quickly, while cutting off avenues of corruption that usually delay their delivery,” says Information and Communications permanent secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo.

Through appropriate awareness, this will open up avenues for economic development in the rural areas, especially those that mainly rely on agricultural activities. They could benefit from online training on agricultural practices, exchange of information as well as creating new markets for their products.

“Service providers have always concentrated on urban areas which are viewed as more economically viable than rural parts, but with the fibre every sector will have an equal platform; no one will feel disadvantaged because of their location,” says Ms Mwai.

The digital divide visible between rural and urban school students will also be reduced. With the proposed rollout of e-learning across the country, it will not matter which school a student is attending, as they will be exposed to the same resources regardless of their location.

Budget allocation

In addition, this year’s budget allocated Sh1.3 billion (Sh6 million per constituency) for the purchase of mobile computer laboratories for use by high schools in a pilot project to grow the use of broadband internet throughout Kenya. There is also the rollout of digital villages in conjunction with the World Bank. In his budget speech, the Finance minister said that these centres will create business hubs and expand economic opportunities in rural areas.

Such efforts by the government will open up the world to people in rural Kenya, who have never even had electricity, let alone internet. But the lack of electricity will not hinder rural areas from accessing the fibre connection as the Communication Commission of Kenya recently issued Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) a telecommunication license as a data carrier operator.

The license allows KPLC to own and operate communications infrastructure. Even though the power company has no plans of getting into telecommunication service, it intends to lease excess capacity of its fibre optic network to licensed telecoms service providers. The company is currently installing about 1,500 kilometers of fibre optic cable running along its countrywide power transmission network.

Vigorous growth in e-commerce is also expected as people who know how to tap in to technology make use of the increased capacity and affordable internet costs. For IT graduate, Albert Kimani, it has been a long way coming from making little cash from designing websites for small companies.

He is now optimistic that there is going to be demand for such services as the increased capacity will mean more online marketing and advertising for companies. Since Mr Kimani finished school, he has not been able to land a permanent job, but he says he has been earning some income by fixing computers and installing software for his clients. Now he is hoping the internet will bring in more demand for his services.

“I also plan to start a company dealing in a software sales business,” he says. Those involved in selling computers and other hardware and software are also preparing to reap from the digital boom as the demand for computers is expected to rise.

Outsourcing

Unlike in other countries, which are already connected to the fibre optic cable, communication speeds have been the main limit to the business outsourcing industry in Kenya as data and calls via satellite are very expensive. Entrepreneurs in the industry are now looking forward to cheaper telephony, internet and even video communication.

Local online companies and mainstream companies will have to boost the quality of their products as they will be competing on a global scale for clients. Employment opportunities will also be opened up, since with the steady internet and video connection, you can work for any company in the world without having to be physically present.

With thousands of jobs for, among others, writers, consultants and researchers’ opportunities will be opened up giving higher incomes and the convenience of working from home. Under business process outsourcing, engineering and scientific research, computer programming, accounting and telemarketing, the new global enterprise, can be based anywhere in the world.

Entertainment and social networking, which have picked up fast in Kenya even with the hard conditions, can only be expected to be more popular with money-minded people using them as channels of gaining knowledge and reaching more audiences. However, with majority of Kenyans still computer illiterate, developing the content to be transmitted might take time and may lead to foreign content dominating the scene.

It is on such basis that President Kibaki during the commissioning of fibre optic cable landing directed the ministry of Information and Communication to come up with programmes for the training and development of the youth nationwide, to catch the first generation of truly digital Kenyans.

However, with such great potential of the fibre optic cable, industry experts warn that regulatory measures must be taken to curb the evils that come with the internet such as pornographic content and internet scams and other business irregularities.