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Infrastructure snags continue to plague Africa's economy [Business Daily (Kenya)]
[July 13, 2014]

Infrastructure snags continue to plague Africa's economy [Business Daily (Kenya)]


(Business Daily (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The lack of infrastructure continues to plague Africa's economic transformation, especially in connectivity to rural areas.

The proliferation of submarine cables on the East African coast such as Eassy, Teams , Seacom and Lion2 has meant that Internet connectivity in Kenya is extensive on the coastal city of Mombasa where the cables land, but other than connecting the capital city Nairobi, there is a dearth of real broadband everywhere else inland.



Infrastructure remains a key challenge especially for telecommunication providers, notes Ken Munyi, the managing director of iWayAfrica Kenya, an African ISP.

"While recent research data has named Kenya as number three on the African continent in terms of average broadband speeds per country, we face the same major challenges as most in the ICT sector, being able to reach far into the rural areas where people are in dire need of connectivity.


"It is in these remote places where terrestrial or copper based technologies cannot reach and ISP's such as iWayAfrica have been forced to find inspired ways to resolve the issues." According to Informa Telecoms and Media, the ICT sector has the capacity to help transform Africa and allow the continent to become a fully connected member of the global knowledge economy.

Mr Munyi in agreement says in some cases this is already starting to happen: "East Africa, Kenya in particular, has seen some great progress.

There has been some excellent collaboration between public and private sectors aimed at increasing ICT adoption as well as raising awareness of the endless benefits of ICT. This is not only for individuals, but also for the economy." As Africa grapples with its next phase of economic development it simultaneously faces its biggest opportunity and challenge with the Internet.

READ: Africa needs massive investment in infrastructure: IMF According to McKinsey report, Lions go Digital: The Internet's Transformative Potential in Africa, it is estimated that in the next decade the Internet will contribute approximately $300bn in GDP with e-commerce growing to more than $75bn.

"It is thus undeniable that Africa and the Internet already have a history and more is certainly going to come," notes the report.

iWayAfrica has responded to connectivity issues by offering a myriad of telco products and solutions.

"East Africa's Internet consumers both urban and rural, are able to bridge the digital divide by accessing triple play services (voice, data, video) through iWayAfrica's satellite technologies.

"In addition, iWay caters for the rural cellular market by providing a cost effective cellular BTS solution backhauled over an optimised VSAT or terrestrial link to the mobile operator's core network," the firm states.

iWayAfrica has also partnered with Avanti Communications to launch iWayAfriKa Service making Ka Band broadband service available in the region.

The new service overcomes traditional broadband satellite limitations on throughput and cost.

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