It is not everyday I sit down and reminisce technology advances in my home country, but the announcement of the fibre optic cable caught my attention.A 4,500km undersea fibre optic cable bringing broadband Internet connectivity to east Africa, reached the Kenyan coast from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates today.

The East Africa Marine Systems (TEAMS) fibre optic submarine cable project is a joint venture of the Kenyan government and Emirates Telecommunication Technology (Etisalat) and a consortium of local investors. It is expected to boost internet connections while greatly reducing the cost of obtaining the service, the cost is expected to be slashed by up to 60% of current costs. This spells affordability and job creations in a country that needs all the help it can garner . This project is foreseen by many as the ultimate tool that will aid Kenya step on the ladder and be at par with countries such as the Philippines and India.

That spells bye bye to the slowest internet I have ever used, and i am glad it is gone, just as long as Telkom kenya is not allowed to run things! Although many households will have to wait a while before they get a piece of the pie, most businesses are expected to flourish, unfortunately, they will have to hold their horses for a whole month before the connection goes commercial.

An all important job creation sector will be Business Process Outsourcing. Also development of digital media is expected to grow, and a probable move into digital broadcasting established. The capability of such a feat is endless, what we are talking about here is, High speed download speed, Video conferencing, Streaming Video/Audio, online businesses, online multipler gaming, online shopping e.t.c

This project was an alternative to the $82 million EASY project which the government felt that it was dominated by south africa, it is also expected to reach the Kenyan coast in a few weeks, bringing with it even greater connectivity.

What i find really astonishing is the cost that these projects will save the government, initially, the government was paying a whooping $5,000 per Mega-Byte per month!! that is atleast half a million kenyan shillings per MB!! now, the newly laid fibre optic system will cost them only $200 for the same amount of data! thats alot of chumes saved if you ask me.