This development will allow the Telecom operator to be fully in-charge of the data infrastructure right from Kampala to its global submarine network. In a press release published on PC Tech Magazine Byron Clatterbuck, Chief Commercial Officer at SEACOM, was very optimistic about this development; To enable service provision in Kampala and the Kampala metro, SEACOM Uganda will deploy one of the Points of Presence (PoPs) within the capital at Airtel House and the other location is to be confirmed shortly. These PoPs will be directly connected through ring-switched backhaul links through Nairobi to Mombasa and then on to the SEACOM international subsea cable network. The deployment of the PoPs will also further enable onward access to other neighbouring countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan. According to the press statement, the two PoPs will improve Internet access for Ugandans by 50 per cent. Data tariffs in Uganda are still high with 50 MB of data costing about $0.4 on average from local Internet Service Providers (ISPs). However, SEACOM’s entrance to the data market means that local ISPs will be able to buy data in bulk cheaply from the global carrier in turn reducing data costs incurred by the final users as Clatterbuck said in a statement “Ugandan operators and service providers will benefit from our highly resilient and redundant submarine cables with immediate effect,”. This comes at a time when Tata communications and Roke TeleKom last month singed an extendable three year deal to connect Uganda to vast undersea fiber cable network while Google is finalizing laying optic fiber cables around Kampala city. Image: timeslive.co.za
