Nairobi — The Eastern Africa submarine cable system kick-off may be delayed further after Uganda said it would not sign up until its concerns are addressed.

"We are not ready to ratify the protocol. We are interested but we are also looking at other alternatives," Information and Communications Technology Minister Dr Ham-Mukasa Mulira told the parliamentary ICT committee last week.

The chairman of the committee Edward Baliddawa (Kigulu North MP), said the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) programme has particularly lobbied Uganda to ratify the protocol to make up the number needed for the high-speed Internet venture to start but in vain. Six countries have ratified the protocol - one short of the required number for it to start.

"A senior Ugandan official at Nepad, Dr Edmond Katiti, has been lobbying us to ratify the protocol. Once we ratify it, the project will go on," the MP said.

However, Dr Mulira has objected to Nepad's requests, saying they require a lot of groundwork on the project to be convinced.

Africa under the 53-member African Union programme, Nepad resolved to build the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) in 2004.

However, out of the 23 countries that recently gathered in Rwanda to sign up the project, only 12 including Uganda have since signed the Kigali protocol with only six ratifying it.

Uganda's change of heart complicates Nepad's push to bring the other stakeholders on board in an effort to start the planned 9,900-kilometre Eassy cable that is expected to run undersea from Durban in South Africa to Djibouti.

EASSy, a consortium of private telecommunications firms, fell out with the South African-based Nepad e-Africa Commission that is representing interests of governments. This resulted in Nepad opting to construct its own parallel cable.

Kenya also withdrew from the deal citing differences over ownership of the entire project and concerns over delays. The country, through the Eastern Africa Marine System, is building its own cable from Mombasa connecting with the Middle East.

Dr Mulira said Uganda needs more time to assess the Nepad project.

"We are looking at the legal and financial implications. The new shift of scope is $3 billion. The Nepad business model has since changed. So we need to carefully study it," he told MPs.

Africa is faced with high costs of Internet connectivity due to limited investment in submarine cables. In Uganda, for example, the ICT minister said two megabits cost between $4,000 and $5,000 a month yet in the United States it costs about two dollars.

Internet service provider Uunet, which is one of the prospective private investors in the government-driven system, says the cost of Internet connectivity in Kenya is unlikely to fall to $500 per megabit per month as the government has projected.

African countries access the Internet through satellite, which is costly while most continents do so via submarine cables at zero cost.

Uganda has already built an internal backbone fibre cable ahead of the other East African countries so as to reduce its internal Internet weaknesses.

The cable, so far spread within the central part of the country, will be linked to the submarine cable Uganda will access.

"We have covered Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. The second phase, sponsored by China, starts in April. We shall roll out to a few other districts but not the entire country," Dr Mulira said.

The minister has also revealed that his government has started fast-tracking cyber legislation to prepare for the growing ICT sector.

He said his ministry, with the assistance of the Uganda Law Reform, has drafted four Bills to be presented to Cabinet early March.

These are the Electronic Transactions Bill, the Electronic Signature Bill (that would require a source of an e-mail communication to sign digitally as a way of authenticity), the National Information Technology Authority Bill and the Computer Misuse Bill (which will cater for privacy and pornography).

"When we first submitted them to Cabinet, we were asked to harmonise these Bills with the Finance ministry's Securities Deposits Capital Bill. The latter will guide the sell of stocks online. But in a fortnight, after the first parliamentary council has finalised reviewing the Bills, we shall present them to the Cabinet," the minister said.

Dr Mulira also later agreed to submit the Bills first to the ICT parliamentary committee before presenting them to the Cabinet.

"We want to internalise the Bills as fast as we can so that when they come up for the first reading, it will be possible reduce the required 45 days for debating. We know some may not even appear on the Order Paper during this session since pending Bills from other sectors that are yet to be tabled, Mr Baliddawa said.