Dimension Data division Internet Solutions (IS) has increased its stake in its Kenyan subsidiary from 51% to 80% as it seeks to further expand its presence in the fast growing East African region. IS initially acquired a 51% stake in Kenyan service provider iConnect in 2005, which was then rebranded Internet Solutions Kenya.
The Kenyan business also serves Tanzania and Uganda. IS has plans to expand into Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan in the near future and has secured an option to acquire the remaining 20% stake in its Kenyan operation.

See attached press release

Article from TechCentral

Seventeen years ago Wired published Neal Stephenson’s magisterial epic “Mother Earth Mother Board”, about the web of undersea fibre-optic cables being built to connect all of humanity. Well – almost all. Africa, again, was left behind. Until 2009, all of East Africa could only connect to the Internet over slow and hugely expensive satellite links.

Finally, two years ago, SEACOM, a Convergence Partners investee company, laid a cable along the East African coast to Mumbai; then tributaries were run thousands of kilometers inland, as far as Uganda and even Rwanda; and later this year, a direct connection to Europe will be lit up. A recent article in TechCruch explores some of the inner workings and history of the SEACOM undersea cable.

As noted in the abovementioned article, the entry of SEACOM has chopped the cost of bandwidth from US $5,000 per megabit/s per month to approximately $100, hugely increased capacity to 1.28 terabits/second, and given more than 100 million people (and counting) access to broadband Internet for the very first time.

Landing the cables was the hard part. It took three months to dig, lay, and cover those seven kilometres, using local barges and professional divers. By contrast, the cable that runs to Djibouti along the 1500 kilometres of Somalia’s wild coast was laid in less than a month not counting the 55 days that the ship had to rest in port because of the danger of pirates.

The undersea cable consists of the fibres themselves, as thin as human hairs, wrapped in a copper sheath that carries up to 10,000 DC volts to power the repeaters every 100km that keep the signals comprehensible. In depths less than a kilometre, this is all sheathed in thick additional armour.

SEACOM is a triumph of engineering, and a profoundly important one. In Kenya today, a SIM card costs less than a beer, and a minute of 2G Internet access costs only 2.5 cents. That’s still too much, but far less than in the bad old days.

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Article in pdf

Comsol reports that wireless 
telecoms networks and their maintenance are a growing focus among private clients, as the costs of owning and maintaining a private network soar.

Large companies across many vertical markets, especially mining operators, are increasingly looking to wireless networks to provide communications solutions between different parts of the organisation. This is in part owing to capital still being difficult to raise in the uncertain and volatile post-
recession period, the company says.

Comsol sales manager Darren Morgan says that wireless communications networks provide a reliable alternative to laying wires for a similar network. Wireless networks provide high-speed connections, reduced maintenance and are able to cover large distances in remote areas.

Morgan notes that, in the realm of wireless communications, the greatest threat to hardware life-cycle costs is technological advances. 
This often prompts whole networks to be upgraded before the hardware has reached the end of its service life, owing to it being technologically inferior. This is why Comsol offers fully managed services, where equipment is owned by Comsol and the service it provides is offered on an operating expenditure basis.

Morgan explains that the older technology would then be redeployed elsewhere, or redis-
tributed through Comsol’s retail outlets. The client’s network will be upgraded, while the service fees will be increased in relation to the speed of the new network.

Comsol offers a wide range of implementation and maintenance contracts, tailored to specific client needs. Morgan says that clients may choose to own the network hardware, and contract Comsol to perform maintenance. 
Clients have access to a 24/7 call centre to report any failures, the company reports.

Clients may also opt for a comprehensive solution, where Comsol owns the wireless network, and installs and maintains it to client specifications. Such networks are typically under constant surveillance from a remote control office. Technicians monitor all 
aspects of the network, including energy management, hardware cooling and availability, 
and regular maintenance is carried out.

An advantage in opting for this contract is that clients do not incur the 
depreciation of the hardware, and are not responsible for maintaining the network, Comsol states.

“Mines favour our networks, owing to commercial telecommunications operators usually not having networks in the often rural settings in which they 
operate.

“By using their own network, miners are able to reduce the number of connections to commercial communications service providers, by communicating 
internally over vast distances,” he explains.

While wireless networks can be deployed almost instantaneously, a number of contractors involved with the construction of State-owned power utility Eskom’s new coal-fired Medupi power station needed a quick and reliable communications network, from Gauteng to the Limpopo site.

“We are currently able to provide about 60 contractors with independent, reliable wireless communications networks. Individual networks were implemented, so that contractors do not have to contend among themselves for the available bandwidth,” he explains.

The company also reports being involved in the design, construction and maintenance of a 
1 200-km link in Kenya. Morgan notes that, given the vast distances involved in the link, the use of a wireless network reduces the amount of maintenance needed, 
when compared with those of conventional systems.

“The amount of paperwork, in the form of applications to local authorities and to acquire land rights, is also 
reduced, resulting in faster implementation times,” he says.

Further, Comsol reports that it maintains aggressive service level agreements (SLAs) that 
ensure speedy service delivery. The company has a number of 
offices spread across South Africa to reduce its response times to failures, as agreed in its rigorous SLAs.

“On average, the company achieves a seven-hour response time to failures at some of our most remote clients.

“Should we fail to deliver on our SLAs, we have agreed to
severe penalties,” he says.

See attached link

Seacom, the first undersea cable providing fibre connectivity to the East Africa, is enabling affordable access to the internet to millions of people. Recently, a key contributor to the development of fibre optics technology, Charles K Kao, was one of the winners of the 2009 Physics Nobel Prize. 

View the report