Eassy task force created

The East African Submarine System (Eassy) Consortium has set up a task force to stage an East African roadshow to assess issues around the building of the undersea cable system. The system is intended to serve eight coastal and 11 land-locked countries.

"The Eassy task force will assess and discuss the key issues around the building of the Eassy cable," said Russell Southwood, CEO of Balancing Act, who was a speaker at the Eassy conference held in Mombasa, Kenya, last Friday.

The meeting was convened by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Balancing Act, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa group and the Kenya ICT Action Network.

"The meeting welcomed the proposed project and sought clarity on important issues around open access, pricing and gateways, to ensure the mistakes of SAT3 were not repeated," said APC executive director Anriette Esterhuysen.

She said the new task force had an important role in assessing the stumbling blocks in the way of the Eassy system.

Southwood said the task force will embark on three confirmed national roadshow events in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, to get an idea of the key issues surrounding the fibre optic cable in East African countries. The task force will reconvene on 2 April with the Eassy Consortium in Zambia, to discuss the findings and map the way forward.

Delegates at the Eassy meeting noted that SAT3 is the only fibre system in Africa and because of the monopoly of ownership, the cost of Internet and broadband access is kept high by a few stakeholders.

The price of bandwidth in Africa is among the most expensive in the world, preventing locals from competing with global competitors, said Willie Currie, APC communication and information policy programme manager.

"Open access will give many stakeholders the opportunity to invest in the Eassy cable, which will lower access rates."

Southwood explained that SAT3 had set "a bad precedent" in terms of high rates of around US$10 000 to US$15 000 per Mbps per month, with the actual cost for the operator being around US$2 000 per month, preventing many countries from access due to the high prices.

According to Southwood, all parties concerned welcomed the idea of 'open access`, whereby there is an open playing field, allowing many stakeholders to invest in the project.

However, Southwood said the term 'open access` is a still grey area as most stakeholders have different ideas on what it entails. "The Nepad eCommission has different ideas to the Eassy Consortium," he said.