What a five-hour power blackout actually costs you

What you need to know:

  • It is highly likely that a significant portion of rural Kenya was eventually disconnected from communication signals after their generator fuel got depleted.
  • Vandalism of network copper cables may have reduced, but that is because operators have hired private security firms to guard their assets.
  • You already know, by now, that cost of security will naturally be passed over to the customer.

So Kenya experienced a five-hour nationwide power blackout last week on Saturday.

Earlier, in June, we had a similar, though shorter, nationwide blackout – supposedly caused by a mischievous monkey.

Whatever the reasons, a nationwide power failure exposes the underbelly of what would otherwise be our vibrant, globally competitive ICT sector.  

Many policymakers have never made the connection between ICTs and supporting infrastructure such as power, roads, fuel and general security.

The utilities above are often managed under independent silos, better known as the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and Ministry of Interior and the Coordination of National Government, among others, with their convergence points rarely appreciated.

It is time to deconstruct these points of convergence so that the government can begin to think about ICT from the perspective of converged customer services, rather than fiefdom creation.

Consider the typical mobile network operator, which maintains thousands of base stations that need to continually provide communication signals, even when Kenya Power takes its now frequent, but unplanned, French leave.

RURAL KENYA DISCONNECTED

For the five hours that Kenya was without commercial power, mobile companies had to run these base stations on generator fuel. Safaricom, for example, has over five thousand such base stations spread across the country.

Running these base stations on backup generator fuel is not cheap, so who eventually pays this extra cost? No, it is not Kenya Power, but you and me, the consumer.

In short, frequent power blackouts simply mean more costly communication services. Costly communication services mean Kenya becomes an expensive business destination for both local and foreign investors.

Additionally, five hours is long enough to drain the fuel powering the generators, so someone has to run around buying and replenishing.

This is where the quality and extension of our road network becomes critical. For those base stations located within urban centres, the logistics behind fuel replenishment may be fairly straightforward.

However, for rural and remote base stations, poor road infrastructure means that generators could perhaps get replenished the following day. 

It is highly likely that a significant portion of rural Kenya was eventually disconnected from communication signals after generator fuel was depleted. This amounts to a direct and negative hit on projected revenues for business operators.

Any business-oriented operator will obviously find ways and means to recover that revenue. Again, the revenue lost will not be from Kenya Power. You and I will have to fill in the missing revenues, one way or the other.

SIPHONING FUEL

Finally, general insecurity remains one of the hidden costs for running communication networks. Vandalism of network copper cables may have lessened, but that is because operators have hired private security firms to guard their assets.

Additional guards would be required to secure the perimeters of base stations, to prevent ingenious Kenyans from siphoning generator fuel for resale on the black market.

You already know, by now, that the cost of security will naturally be passed on to the customer.

Unless we get our act together and improve supporting infrastructure for our ICT sector, we will continue to wallow in our misplaced bliss, in which we think we are better than neighbouring countries.

Given that we recently subscribed to the league of the middle-income countries, how about we start measuring our supporting infrastructure against the Brazils, the South Africas or the Malaysias of this world?

Unless and until we do this, our ICT sector may continue shining, but only within the lower quartile of global economies. And that is not the Kenya we want.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jwalu