IDG News Service —
The Rwandan government has announced that it is targeting two African submarine cable systems for cheaper Internet bandwidth through the country's Internet backbone.
The two cables being targeted are the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and The East African Marine System (TEAMS).
Running under the Indian Ocean, EASSy and TEAMS will link the region into the global communication network. The cables are under construction and are expected to be operational by 2010.
As a result of Rwanda purchasing cheaper capacity from the submarine cable systems, the cost of Internet broadband in the country is expected to fall from US$3,000 to $25 for each megabyte per second, said Nkumbito Bakuramutsa, director of the Rwanda Information Technology Agency.
The World Bank -- under its concessional lending arm, the International Development Agency -- has approved $24 million for the construction of Rwanda's national Internet backbone project.
The funds are part of $424 million from the World Bank's Regional Communication Infrastructure Program aimed at improving the regional communication infrastructure and increasing the deployment of e-governance in Southern and Eastern Africa.
Upon completion of Rwanda's Internet backbone, the World Bank expects the volume of international bandwidth in the country to triple and the price of bandwidth to fall by 50 percent.
