Nairobi — Altech Stream East Africa, has completed laying its Sh27 billion 1500km fibre backbone from Mombasa to Kampala, upping the stakes in the regional telecoms scene, as the region gears up for the rolling out of the international undersea cables.

Altech Stream East Africa is the parent firm of Kenya Data Networks Ltd (KDN), Infocom of Uganda and Altech Stream Rwanda.

KDN, Infocom and Altech Stream Rwanda will bring the benefits of the submarine fiber to businesses, homes and the digital villages.

By providing faster, cheaper and efficient services including cable television, telephone and internet, the East African countries will be well on the way to competing on the global scene.

Altech Stream East Africa, executive director, Mr Kai Wulff said, "From the time we laid our first fiber optic cable in 2005 in Nairobi, we told you that we are looking to cover from Cape to Cairo. This is one step closer to our mission."

He added that there will no longer be a need to go through satellite to communicate across the border as has been the case.

"Your information will no longer require to travel 72,000 kilometres to the satellite to reach Uganda. This will mean that you will now pay 10 per cent of what you were required to pay before on VSAT for your communication costs between Kenya and Uganda, using the network we have just installed," he said.

UUNET

Meanwhile, UUNET Kenya will connect its clients onto the submarine fibre optic cable from September 1 this year, according to managing director, Mr Tom Omariba.

Mr Omariba said he has issued an internal communiqué to the firm's clients, advising them to use the current 60-day testing period to ensure their communication systems are protected against threats.

The undersea cables will expose users to the potential risk of hackers and other illegitimate usage that could compromise the security of their network.

Omariba said UUNET Kenya has addressed this potential risk through its network security services, developed with the global expertise and experience gained from the firm's parent company MTN Business, which has for many years offered security services on fibre networks.