Alcatel-Lucent to link Seychelles with global fibre networks
Alcatel-Lucent has inked a deal worth more than US$30 million with Seychelles Cable System (SCS) to build the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS) connecting Victoria in the Seychelles to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The new submarine cable will provide Seychelles with high-speed direct access to an international fibre-optic backbone for the first time. The SEAS will span over 1,900km offering international connectivity in support of affordable internet access and new broadband applications for commerce and government services.
According to Benjamin Choppy, Principal Secretary, Department of ICT, this new connection will provide faster internet and improved access to telecommunications, providing a cost-effective reliable solution that will give the country an alternative to satellite connections, on which they completely dependent on now.
Cable & Wireless Seychelles, Airtel Seychelles will partner with Alcatel-Lucent in SEAS.
According to the CEO’s of both the telecom operators, Charles, the scalability of Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine solution and its extensive end-to-end expertise will help the company to meet the growing bandwidth needs as well as improve the quality of service that they offer to their customers on both fixed and mobile networks.
Telco’s to enlist on country’s stock exchange- Tanzania’s parliament
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new telecommunications bill has been passed by Tanzania’s parliament making it mandatory for all mobile network operators to list on the country’s Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).The move has been cited as a retrograde step for the industry and has been facing vocal criticism from the firms.
According to Vodacom Tanzania’s head of legal and regulatory affairs, Mr Godwin Ngwilimi, the bill takes the country back to the era of nationalization when individuals were forced to sell their companies or shares to the government.
However, the government considers the bill justified in the wake of opeartor’s unfair treatment of end users and their withholding of billions to the state by way of taxes. If the bill is passed and becomes a law, domestic telcos will be forced to offer shares to the public and will also be required to list with the DSE within three years of it entering the statute.
WiMAX network launched by Sasatel in Dar es Salaam
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A high speed wireless broadband service has been launched by Sasatel Tanzania based on WiMAX technology in the capital Dar es Salaam. Sasatel has also promised that it is not going to pass on the installation costs to customers or in other words it will provide a ‘low cost’ broadband option to end users.
The company said that all this have been possible because of its link to the Seacom fibre-optic cable which helps it effectively to eliminate its WiMAX investment costs. According to products director Thomas Andre Molvig, after launching its EV-DO internet services for small and medium-sized businesses in June last year, the company is now launching WiMAX internet access to cater for the internet needs of large businesses and corporate customers.
In June 2009, Sasatel became the seventh company to provide mobile services in the country with the commercial launch of the new network in the capital Dar es Salaam.
MTC targets 70 million subscribers by 2011
Telecompaper writes…Africa and Middle East mobile operator MTC has set out its mid-term goals at a meeting of its 20 national operations in Dar es Salaam. The group’s new strategy, called Acceleration, Consolidation, Expansion, aims for 70 million subscribers and EBITDA of USD 6 billion by 2011, with a market capitalisation of USD 30 billion. It last reported 24.90 million subscribers at the end of September 2006.
