Kenya’s investment in fibre optics good for digital economy

The last 20 years have been nothing short of transformational for Kenya’s knowledge-based economy.

During this period, Internet connectivity has become progressively accessible to more Kenyans.

The paradigm shift, evident from massive technology adoption across most socio-economic sectors has been a thing of marvel. The evolution of this has seen Kenya move from offline technologies and a reliance on copper for connectivity to cellular, and now, to fibre optics. It is even more interesting how Kenyan Internet users at one point shared 32Kbps to serve the entire country — a far cry from the 1.7Gbps that would end up being in use about two decades later.

Fast-forward a decade later, with a protracted regulatory process and more filibustering at hand, the eastern African seaboard and region, including Kenya, did not have an inch of submarine fibre optic connectivity.

Kenya at the time, relied mainly on expensive, satellite-based connections to link it to the rest of the world. This made it costly to conduct business. The lack of high-capacity bandwidth connectivity limited Kenya from exploiting its full potential.

The Government of Kenya (GoK), working closely with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), spearheaded an initiative to install The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS), to link the country to the rest of the world through a submarine fibre optic cable. It created what would become a 5,000-km fibre-optic undersea cable, linking Mombasa with Fujairah in the UAE. This project was realised for Sh13 billion ($130 million) as a joint venture between the GoK and Kenyan operators (holding 85 percent shares) and UAE-based operator, Etisalat, with 15 percent.

The cable, launched on October 1, 2009, would go on to be connected to the Kenyan national optical fibre backbone infrastructure and other major backhaul providers, extending to the rest of the East African countries: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, through cross-border connectivity.

If the bulk of Internet-enabled development in the region owes success to this mega infrastructure, the demands of the next-horizon digital economy will need even more robust infrastructure. The majority of the existing East African submarine broadband infrastructure is nearing its 20-year shelf-life.

New infrastructure will provide an alternative redundant option for international connectivity, on newer and more reliable technology.

Djibouti Telcom, Somalia telco Somtel, and the GoK, through Telkom Kenya, are about to celebrate an important milestone — the laying of the Djibouti African Regional Express (DARE-1), a 36-terabyte fibre cable, projected to run about 4,000km interconnecting Kenya to Djibouti.

The landing of the DARE-1 in Mombasa, in March 2020, will directly benefit Kenya with the eventual gains realised on cost for the end customer and the economy.

The Internet will also solve the youth jobs conundrum by powering the gig economy. Faster Internet could also be used to transform government services, enhancing citizen satisfaction and experience.

Kenya has a long way to go in building an efficient digital system but the hoops we have jumped this far are worth celebrating.

The writer is CEO of Telkom Kenya.