Cable project mess

Not yet uhuru for ailing African cable project

Analysts from BMI-T have said what everyone else was thinking — that a government-backed undersea telecoms cable around Africa just isn’t going to happen.

The government has not covered itself in glory in its involvement in the telecoms sector.

The sector would fare much better if the state backed off and let the private sector set the pace. That is true throughout Africa, where liberalisation remains deliberately slow to protect state monopolies.

In theory, the Uhurunet cable will touch about 21 countries — 13 have signed up to support it. The laudable idea is to end Africa’s bandwidth drought by making far more available at vastly lower prices. But there are problems.

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