Despite the violence, a serious humanitarian crisis and an over 20 year conflict devastating the country, Somalia remains a thriving market for some businesses, reveals the Wall Street Journal in an article entitled “Telecom Firms Thrive in Somalia despite War, Shattered Economy”. Read the rest of this entry »

Representatives from Dubai-based Conway Bond Telecommunications, Leadinspiration, Inc, headquartered in London, and members of the African Union have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, Legal Framework as well as a Proceedings contract to develop a Next Generation Network in several nations in Africa. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK & MORRISTOWN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SEACOM, Ltd, and its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, a business segment of Tyco Electronics Ltd. and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services, today announced they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of Phase 1 of the SEA Cable System. This milestone marks the conclusion of a comprehensive test program, which verified connectivity and compliance with all transmission requirements, while moving South and East Africa a significant step closer toward achieving increased international connectivity. Read the rest of this entry »

Seacom fibre arrives but SAT3 monopoly is still in place

The Seacom international cable is due to go live next week on Thursday and it will fundamentally change much of the underlying economics of the communications business. It will be followed by the TEAMS cable some time in Q4 this year and by EASSy at the end of June 2010.

There will be something like full competition for international capacity and prices will fall considerably. The same will also happen on the west coast of Africa but the current reality is that the SAT3 monopoly is still very much in place.

The Seacom cable will deliver up to 1.28 Tbps of capacity to landing stations in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. So far according to Brian Herlihy, CEO of Seacom it has sold 80 Gbs, including 10 GBs to South African research network TENET. Herlihy says:”People are buying 10-15 times their existing bandwidth. They can get that much for the same sort of cash they’re already spending.” Read the rest of this entry »