Nairobi — The country still needs more fibre optic undersea cable connectivity to boost availability of bandwidth.

This is despite the fact that already there are two connected to the Kenyan hinterland - Seacom and Teams - which is due to begin working in June next year.

Minister for Information and Communication Samuel Poghisio said the government would welcome additional fibre optic capacity from the Lower Indian Ocean Network (Lion) cable, which was launched last week connecting Reunion Islands to Madagascar and Mauritius.

"We are trying to build a culture of internet use in this country and the more broadband capacity we can get the better," he said.

The minister spoke when he hosted France Telecom deputy chief executive officer Jean -Yves Larrounturou at his offices.

Mr Larrounturou was in Kenya to assess the progress of Telkom Kenya and obtain a briefing on the state of the local telecommunications sector.

He said that his company would invest more in innovative products to take advantage of the new fibre capacity.

"There is a great opportunity to develop this market and it is all linked to innovation which we will invest in considerably," he said.

Lion connects Madagascar to the broadband internet network in order to secure connection of the France Telecom's regional sites with two new stations in Reunion and Mauritius.

The two islands represent the connection points for the SAT3-WASC-SAFE cable, which links Europe to Asia via the southern tip of Africa.

The development of regional co-operation in the Indian Ocean could be further strengthened thanks to a project to extend the Lion cable to Mombasa, where there are several possibilities for interconnecting with other submarine links.