(WORLD) READ:Could East Africa become an outsourcing hub?…

Source: Globalpost

The arrival of broadband in Tanzania presents dazzling business possibilities.

 

By Eamon Kircher-Allen — Special to GlobalPost

Published: August 17, 2009 07:36 ET
Updated: August 18, 2009 11:18 ET

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DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — Ramadhan Mubarak shook his head as he gestured to his six forlorn PCs.

“I believe that many people want to use the internet,” he said. “But most Tanzanians are poor, so they can’t manage the cost.”

Mubarak owns two of the handful of internet cafes in downtown Dar es Salaam, and he can barely cover his overhead of $1,500 a month. Like many people here, he’s hoping that will soon change: East Africa’s new fiber-optic cable has been laid across the Indian Ocean and made landfall here on July 23. When it goes into use in late August, it is likely to dramatically reduce costs and improve connectivity speed.

The cable, which is a two-year, $650 million project of the private venture Seacom, connects East and Southern Africa to India and Europe and will end the dependence of Tanzania’s internet on satellites. Even accounting for exaggeration — some boosters have promised it will improve education and healthcare and curb corruption — pretty much everyone who uses the internet here agrees that fiber-optic connectivity is nothing short of a revolution. Read More