[UgaBYTES] Poverty , Illiteracy could lead to undeutilization of Fibre Optic Capacity

[Mwathi Francis]

Telecom operators and investors in Africa face a dilemma, as to whether the
expected level of demand is worth the huge capital investment into the
submarine fibre optic cable currently available to the continent. A total of
seven undersea fibre optic cables, with an aggregate capacity of 10.94
terabytes (10,940 gigabytes), have landing stations along the entire coast
line around Africa.

A panel of five telecom experts at the ongoing Telecom World Africa 2009 in
Cape Town, South Africa, noted on Wednesday that even though the submarine
fibre optic technology promised faster speed communication at affordable
rates for Africans, there is a danger most of it will remain redundant due
to low demand.

They each pointed out that the consumption of fibre optics technology was
more in data and internet communication than in voice, saying that the high
level of illiteracy, low access to computers, power supply bottlenecks and
the inability of carriers to pay for fibre optics raised concerns about how
much of fibre optics would be consumed on the continent.
Read On<http://telecentrecommunity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/poverty-illiteracy-could-lead>

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Francis Mwathi
Support Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Tel: +256 414 370163
Mob: +256 783 010269
Skype: francis.mwathi
E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org