[UgaBYTES] Cable vandalism may raise internet cost in East Africa

[Damas Ogwe]

Hi all,

It is a pity that this vandalism is drifting us backwards in this era. 

My understanding has always been that the resale value of fibre cables is almost nil and I would sought of agree when industry players cite industrial sabotage by competitors. Who these are remains a mystery. Could they be manufacturers of other cables or other service providers

All in all, our governments. law makers and enforcers have to find a solution for this and very first. ICT is now acknowledged as a key ingredient in the development process and in Kenya it is part of the strategy for vision 2030. I pray that we need to develop extremely  punitive laws that will stop this menance.


--- On Thu, 12/11/09, Mwathi Francis <mfrancis at ugabytes.org> wrote:

From: Mwathi Francis <mfrancis at ugabytes.org>
Subject: [UgaBYTES] Cable vandalism may raise internet cost in East Africa
To: "ugabytes" <ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org>, "kentel" <kentel at list.kenyatelecentres.org>
Date: Thursday, 12 November, 2009, 8:32

Fibre optic cable carriers are incurring millions of shillings lately as
additional cost for security and monitoring off their lines as cases of
vandalism are worryingly on a rise in East Africa.



Industry insiders say cable vandalism is fast emerging as avenues of
unnecessary expenses and if this continues, operators may even be forced to
to pass on the additional costs to the consumers. Companies now have to
incur expenses in hiring guards to man the cables with some even being
forced to introduce monitoring units which includes vehicles on paths where
their cables lie.



Now the companies are preparing to move petitions to their respective
governments to hand down stiffer penalties to suspected vandals.

Service providers are also pointing fingers at each other, saying vandalism
on the fibre cable is a form of industrial sabotage, since the actual fibre
cable does not have a resale value.

Fibre optic cables allow for more services to be provided to end-users and
can carry more voice and data information than copper wiring but are made
from material that is almost valueless in black markets.


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Francis Mwathi
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UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
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