EA Marine Cable?
Some time back, i was getting my hands dirty on the web digging for existing data about strategic plans related to East Africa in respect of data communications technology.
Before i started working for an ISP (another TLA for you?), i never bothered much about what technology i was using to get the Internet onto my desktop. Never did i bother about how i can improve things in terms speed - i was just doing e-mail, Google-ing (and playing tricks with the engine to produce a single result for a search phrase), reading and chatting. Those days, it was fun!
But now, i face clients daily who run critical applications on the Internet and the only impediment to efficiency is the satellite. We use, in East Africa, satellite to get to the world wide communications network. Communications satellites are in stationary orbit providing links to places that may otherwise not be covered by terrestial cables. But they are tens of thousands of kilometres (about 37,000km) above ground, making them slower than cable.
Words like bandwidth, latency, flow control, jitter, QoS, etc., constitute a nightmare for me. I pick up a VoIP phone to say hi to a fellow in South Africa but fail to talk. The conversation is breaking up too much - latency.
Data sent over satellite from Kenya to South Africa will have a minimum round trip delay of about 400 milliseconds. If it was done by terrestial or submarine cable, it could be as little as 35 milliseconds!
Data speeds over satellite links and cable are the same, but the distance to be covered is much shorter by cable which makes it faster.
This is A.D. 2004. The first transatlantic marine cables were laid as early as the 1850s. East Africans are "still planning" to lay one. My minor concern is that the scale at which they want to start is harder than necessary. There is no reason you want to plan for routing diversity when you have none at the moment, considering initial costs and management factors. My major concern and ultimate question: what have the folks in high office been doing all these years? Only eight years ago, South Africa was building a coalition of frontline states to collaborate and lay a second, higher capacity, modern marine cable. Can one say that these fellows (East Africans) did not know of that project?
Instead of laying cable from Djibouti through Somalia and down south, it would make much more sense - in respect of the concerns raised above - even belatedly, to talk with South Africa and group, to just extend the SAFE cable system from Mauritius to Tanzania and/or Kenya. Mauritius is nearer to us than the FLAG (nearest landing in Muscat) and SEA-ME-WE 3 (nearest landing in Djibouti) cable systems that run through the Red Sea. Or extend the system from South Africa through Mozambique to Tanzania and Kenya. Funds saved on reduced marine distances would be used to lay high capacity terrestial cable to inland teleports in Rwanda and Uganda. Besides, Somalia is in no hurry to contribute to project funding.
Technically, my major benefit and interest is low latency and low-cost broadband connectivity. But in serious economics, we all stand to gain. Communications running costs will drop, capacity will increase, distance learning and telemedicine will become more of a reality, and more telecommunications investors would be attracted. We can no longer ignore the role of Internet connectivity in all aspects of life today.
Nevertheless, welcome, EA Submarine Cable!
Before i started working for an ISP (another TLA for you?), i never bothered much about what technology i was using to get the Internet onto my desktop. Never did i bother about how i can improve things in terms speed - i was just doing e-mail, Google-ing (and playing tricks with the engine to produce a single result for a search phrase), reading and chatting. Those days, it was fun!
But now, i face clients daily who run critical applications on the Internet and the only impediment to efficiency is the satellite. We use, in East Africa, satellite to get to the world wide communications network. Communications satellites are in stationary orbit providing links to places that may otherwise not be covered by terrestial cables. But they are tens of thousands of kilometres (about 37,000km) above ground, making them slower than cable.
Words like bandwidth, latency, flow control, jitter, QoS, etc., constitute a nightmare for me. I pick up a VoIP phone to say hi to a fellow in South Africa but fail to talk. The conversation is breaking up too much - latency.
Data sent over satellite from Kenya to South Africa will have a minimum round trip delay of about 400 milliseconds. If it was done by terrestial or submarine cable, it could be as little as 35 milliseconds!
Data speeds over satellite links and cable are the same, but the distance to be covered is much shorter by cable which makes it faster.
This is A.D. 2004. The first transatlantic marine cables were laid as early as the 1850s. East Africans are "still planning" to lay one. My minor concern is that the scale at which they want to start is harder than necessary. There is no reason you want to plan for routing diversity when you have none at the moment, considering initial costs and management factors. My major concern and ultimate question: what have the folks in high office been doing all these years? Only eight years ago, South Africa was building a coalition of frontline states to collaborate and lay a second, higher capacity, modern marine cable. Can one say that these fellows (East Africans) did not know of that project?
Instead of laying cable from Djibouti through Somalia and down south, it would make much more sense - in respect of the concerns raised above - even belatedly, to talk with South Africa and group, to just extend the SAFE cable system from Mauritius to Tanzania and/or Kenya. Mauritius is nearer to us than the FLAG (nearest landing in Muscat) and SEA-ME-WE 3 (nearest landing in Djibouti) cable systems that run through the Red Sea. Or extend the system from South Africa through Mozambique to Tanzania and Kenya. Funds saved on reduced marine distances would be used to lay high capacity terrestial cable to inland teleports in Rwanda and Uganda. Besides, Somalia is in no hurry to contribute to project funding.
Technically, my major benefit and interest is low latency and low-cost broadband connectivity. But in serious economics, we all stand to gain. Communications running costs will drop, capacity will increase, distance learning and telemedicine will become more of a reality, and more telecommunications investors would be attracted. We can no longer ignore the role of Internet connectivity in all aspects of life today.
Nevertheless, welcome, EA Submarine Cable!
posted by Frank Mubiru | 1:03 PM
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