Kenya pursuing three cable deals

The Kenyan government is pushing ahead with three separate undersea cable deals in an effort to boost the country’s international broadband connectivity. The Ministry of Information and Communication is placing a priority on the East African Marine System (TEAMS), which offers a link to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The Highway Africa news agency reports that under the TEAMS agreement the Kenyan government will have a 40% holding in the project, Etisalat of UAE will hold 20% and the remaining 40% will go to investors in the East African region. The government is also continuing negotiations over its part in the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy), a 9,000km cable which will connect Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania (including Zanzibar). Meanwhile, Kenya Data Network (KDN) has signed an agreement to create a link to the FLAG system; KDN will link from Mombasa and terminate in an undersea junction in international waters off the Yemen, Highway Africa reports. KDN says the link will be fully operational in the first quarter of 2008.