SEACOM, the much anticipated undersea fibre-optic cable system that will connect Africa to the World at a blazing 1.28Tbps, is 54 days from completion.The folks at SEACOM have now created a twitter account through which they share the latest updates on their progress in the lead up to their launch in June.
SEACOM’s progress has created a high level of excitement on the eastern region of the African continent, the only region in the World that has had neither intra – African nor direct access to worldwide international cable networks.
In Kenya, local companies that will buy bandwidth from SEACOM have already made groundwork to ensure they start business as soon as the cable becomes operational. In Malawi, the situation is different. According to the reports that I am getting, Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) is still laying the terrestrial fiber cable network. A connection with the SEACOM cable through Mozambique’s state-owned telecommunications company, TDM at Zobue is expected to be ready by November 2009. As you can see, Malawi will not be connected to the SEACOM cable as soon as possible. By the time Malawi gets connected, it will be difficult for her to catch up with the likes of Kenya in this revolution 🙁
19 users commented in " SEACOM undersea cable is 54 days from completion but Malawi will not be connected as soon as possible "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt is always frustrating when you do not have something that your neighour has, and you are not really responsible for not having it!
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A nice step. Ofcourse technology is an important tool in economic development and it is important for nations like Malawi and India not to miss the advantage.
Jhangora´s last blog post..Congress UPA Set to Form the Next Indian Government
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It’s frustrating when you see the technology so close but still not available to yourself. Hang in there!
Altesino´s last blog post..Commenthunt review
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that is great that they are promoting the use of this on twitter because it is pretty obvious that that is where people are going to look for the necessary information.
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Maybe things will change, and your country will see the value of this really great opportunity. Don’t hesitate, and anyway never is too late.
George´s last blog post..A Budget Orlando Vacation
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it’s a pitty that most of Africa is still away from having the pleasure of social networking, sharing thoughts and files and other interesting stuff, that Internet has to offer (
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Happy Friday to you! Enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work!
Kas
kasandria´s last blog post..**Mom Moment Fridays***
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That’s a bummer, but not all bad. At least they’ll be getting access to the cable within the year. Things could be much worse. Was there a reason that the terestrial line was not started earlier?
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These things always seem to take twice the amount of time they are scheduled for originally don’t they. I bet it will be a decade before the video game circuit gets involved with using the new pipe.
John Pelts´s last blog post..My Outdoor Hobbies
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i read all the comments and concluded that there are still certain areas where technology is not avail even it be to cheap in present time..i think respective GOVT should take step to solve this prob.
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Don’t worry Malawi will also be connected soon. It happens in the world that some countries have the latest technologies and others are struggling for that. It’s very natural, every one can not get the same thing at the same time but gradually it will be there.
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[…] SEACOM undersea cable is 54 days from completion but Malawi will … […]
Too bad…
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Hopefully this will pave the way to cheaper phone calls to Africa… the days of milking Africans in diaspora off their hard-earned money through these exorbitant phone calls are numbered. One has to keep the faith!
.-= steve´s last blog ..G8 countries pledge to increase aid in fight against world poverty =-.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
July 25th, 2009 at 3:38 am
@steve: It surely will. By the way they launched this cable two days ago.
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Fantastic! Hopefully Malawi will catch up sooner rather than later. Life is short!
.-= steve´s last blog ..G8 countries pledge to increase aid in fight against world poverty =-.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
July 25th, 2009 at 4:03 am
@Steve: Maybe, we will get connected by November, 2009. Looks like preparations in Malawi were centred around the EASSY cable, which was conceptualized much earlier than SEACOM, but has been facing severe problems in the implementation phase. It will, however, be ready by next year.
What pains me is the fact that other landlocked countries such as Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia were able to foresee that the SEACOM cable was going to be completed much earlier than the “difficult” EASSY. They put in place mechanisms that are now enabling them to get connected to the SEACOM cable as soon as possible. As I write, Kampala is connected to the SEACOM cable just like Dar-es-salaam, Nairobi, Mombasa, Durban, Maputo and Johannesburg. Kigali and Addis Ababa will be connected shortly.
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Has this been implemented in Malawi yet? Or is the groundwork done yet to connect to whatever Zobue as is said up here?
This is Nov 2010
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This project is long oeverdue. People have been expecting it far too long than the expected. Seems like it took forever SEACOM finish it. Just wondering what causes or the reasons of its delay.
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