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Africa: Fibre Optic Links Costly
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Polycarp Machira
Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology is gaining prominence in Africa in spite of the general opinion that fibre optic networks are the panacea to decreasing Internet connectivity rates.
Despite the widespread growth of the VSAT technology, many African countries suffer from high connectivity rates.
Afsat Communications general manager Job Ndege said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that there was a low motivation to invest in the fibre optic in the continent.
He was speaking on advantages of VSAT.
"The costs of these links are very high and the situation poses a great barrier for African countries to participate in international trade," he said.
He said VSAT was gaining more acceptance due to its maturity, reliability and efficiency - having supported Internet service providers and telecommunications service providers since 1989.
He said that apart from the colossal cost of installing fibre optic networks and the high risk of being damaged, there was a low motivation to invest in the technology due to the small user base in Africa.
"Fibre optics cables in Africa are predominantly being used for backbone or backhaul and not for last mile solutions," he said.
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He said VSAT beat the last mile problem by connecting a customer's network directly to the Internet on a single hop unlike most technologies which rely on others for the Internet connectivity.
And precisely what is he talking about? That Africa should dump Optic Fiber and accept unreliable and costly VSAT? Africa is not going anywhere soon for as long as we prefer shortcuts to real solutions. It is the initial cost of installing Optic Fiber infrastructure that is a bit expensive and when the cable is there, people will definitely use it.
It is a ploy to ensure that Africa never move forward in this IT/ICT age. The water supply system was collapsed in many nations across the continent so that those selling water can make money. Electricity was paralyzed by... [Read Full Text]
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