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Date: | Thu, 24 Jun 1999 22:47:58 -0400 |
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Folks
I stumbled into this today
FYI
Sci/Tech
Circle of light is Africa's Net
gain
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David
Whitehouse
Africa will soon be surrounded by a ring of laser light, as
a new undersea, fibre-optic cable is constructed. The
cable will transform high-speed communications with the
continent.
Experts have said that it will plug Africa into the
high-speed Internet world and could herald an African
renaissance.
The optic-fibre cable is long enough to circle the Earth
and will be laid by robotic submarines. The project will
cost $1.6 billion and aims to be completed in 2002.
Link to the wired world
"The system will fully integrate the African continent into
the global broadband telecommunications network,"
says Steve Fassoulis, chairman of the Africa One
consortium.
The optic cable will be
state-of-the-art, able to carry
up to 40 gigabits of data per
second. It will also be
self-healing, able to repair
itself if it is damaged.
It will have two dozen
"landing points", where the
cable comes ashore.
Countries with no coastline
will be connected to it by
terrestrial optical fibre,
microwave or satellite links.
The data cable will provide Africa with a
telecommunications "backbone" that will connect the
most isolated continent to the rest of the world.
Billion dollar savings
"The telecommunications sector in Africa is developing
rapidly," says Fassoulis, "Deregulation, privatisation and
competition throughout Africa are creating a robust
demand for new services, especially the Internet."
The Africa One network is expected to save countries
hundreds of millions of dollars a year in communication
costs.
According to Joseph Ceva, president of Africa One, the
system will boost trade and investment in Africa.
The optical fibre will be built by Lucent Technologies of
the US and Global Crossing Ltd will lay it on the sea
floor.
Continental co-operation
The concept of circling Africa with a fibre optic cable was
first proposed in 1993 at a meeting of African
telecommunications ministers. Thirty African countries
are now a part of the project.
Experts believe that Africa cannot afford to be without a
high capacity communications connection to the rest of
the world. Currently only South Africa is well connected.
World-wide voice traffic is increasing at 13 per cent a
year, but data traffic is increasing at an even faster
rate.
Over the past five years, Internet traffic has increased by
86 per cent a year.
Optical fibre is the most efficient way of relaying data,
so
the laying of optical cable has increased dramatically. In
1997, there was 30 million kilometres of optic-fibre cable
world-wide. By the end of 2001 it is expected to be 45
million km.
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