Uganda's largest ISP signs onto SEACOM

Uganda's largest ISP (Internet service provider), Uganda Telecom, has agreed to begin using the SEACOM submarine cable, to the relief of its customers who are eager for a high-speed broadband experience.

SEACOM went live late last month, but it has taken weeks for it to close a service level agreement with Uganda Telecom, which controls 70 percent of the Internet market here. SEACOM's undersea fiber-optic cable system will provide African carriers with access to relatively inexpensive bandwidth, relieving the international infrastructure bottleneck and, it is hoped, supporting eastern and southern African economic growth.

Until now, only Infocom Uganda, which holds SEACOM's point of presence (PoP) tenancy agreement, had signed onto SEACOM.

That fact had led to speculation that Uganda Telecom would not actually sign onto SEACOM because it is a shareholder in the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), which lands in June 2010. But according to an official, Uganda Telecom will use SEACOM for now as it waits for EASSy.

Meanwhile, sister company Rwandatel S.A. (RTL), from neighboring Rwanda, also purchased capacity from SEACOM to take high-speed broadband Internet connectivity to that country.

Through the concurrent deals, Uganda Telecom and Rwandatel, both subsidiaries of the Libyan Africa Portfolio LAP Green Networks, have purchased a significant amount of international broadband capacity from SEACOM while SEACOM has in turn secured a backhaul solution for Rwanda on the two regional players' terrestrial networks between Kampala and Kigali, Rwanda. Both telcos will have immediate access to the SEACOM network, according to Brian Herlihy, SEACOM's CEO.

While Uganda has been connected to the SEACOM network via Infocom, the new agreement means that Rwanda will benefit from the newly available broadband capacity as soon as September, according to Herlihy. The Uganda/Rwanda development is in line with SEACOM's objective to provide connectivity solutions to landlocked countries across the east and southern African region, he said.

Now that Rwanda is connected to SEACOM, Herlihy said it will be easier for its southern neighbor Burundi to connect to the rest of the world.

"The capacity purchase by Uganda Telecom on the SEACOM network will dramatically modify the local Internet market, and we look forward to a new era of true broadband across the region," said AbdulBaset Elazzabi, the managing director of LAP Green Networks and Uganda Telecom.

Rwandatel's CEO, Patrick Kariningufu, said that the company has taken major steps to develop its infrastructure in order to extend affordable Internet connectivity in the country.

LAP Green Networks is a telecommunication operator owned by Libyan African Investment Portfolio. Its other investments on the continent include Sonitel Niger, Sahel Com Niger and Oricel Green Cote D'Ivoire.