The second phase that includes wiring up much of the country with about 1,500km of telecommunication cabling at a cost of $61m is underway and is expected to be completed just in time to celebrate the landing of undersea cables on East Africa's coast in Kenya. The funds are provided through a Chinese loan to Uganda.
Recently, Mulira appended his signature to the framework agreement on the provision of a concessional loan by the Chinese for the national data transmission backbone and e-Government project. Chinese foreign affairs minister Yang Jiechi represented his country.
"The undersea cables are becoming a reality. There are now four of them instead of the one that people made a lot of noise about," Mulira said at his office recently and noted that Uganda plans to take full advantage of developments surrounding the coming undersea cables.
It is planned that when Uganda's national data transmission backbone is completed, it will be connected to the undersea cables through Kenya's western border at Malaba and Busia. The backbone will enable fast and cheap telecommunications.
Currently under construction are the $256m East African Submarine System cable (EASSy) to cover east and southern Africa and the $650m SEACOM that will also cover East and Southern Africa, the $82million East African Marine System (TEAMS) from Kenya to the United Arab Emirates.
One of Uganda's strategies is to utilise Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to create an efficient government aimed at simplifying procedures, bringing transparency, accountability and making timely information available to its citizens.
The first phase of Uganda's backbone, completed one year ago, included laying 183km of optical fibre cables to link Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja and Bombo and to install basic e-Government infrastructure, which is currently used to link all major ministries and government departments with an enabling video telephony link among other information communication technologies.
The second phase will see 20 districts connected to the national backbone, data and voice services rolled out on e-Government infrastructure and a government data centre set up.
Mulira says most of the third phase had been handled by private sector. However, in addition to the cables laid by the private sector, the Government will lay more cables for redundancy and both will complement each other.
The third phase cables that are being laid between Busia/Malaba to Jinja and between Katuna to the south-west and Kampala are an important part of the backhaul system that will connect countries like Rwanda and Burundi to the undersea cables on the East African coast.
The planned fourth phase was, according to Mulira, brought up in consultation with Parliament. It will focus on future aspects of the backbone.
At the end of the day, the second phase cabling should have also created a possible connection to Southern Sudan through Nimule border, according to project maps at the ICT Ministry.
Mulira boasts that Uganda was the first among the landlocked countries in the region to plan and start constructing a national backbone. However, the others followed and are moving fast to be in time for the undersea cables.
The backbone will prepare the country for the much anticipated drop in international telephony and data transmission rates after connecting to the global grid through the undersea cables that will start landing on the Kenyan coast next year.
Benefits of the data transmission backbone:
- Improved communication between ministries
- Improved efficiency in ministries
- Reduced cost of communications;
- Increased economic development and poverty reduction.
- Improved convenience to citizens,
- Improved productivity and efficiency of government agencies,
- Accountability in government,
- Increased transparency and fight against corruption,
- Empowering public access to information,
- Improved quality of life for disadvantaged communities, promoting gender equality and reduction of the digital divide,
- Strengthening of good governance,
- Broadening public participation in, and promoting democracy,
- Strengthening legal system and law enforcement.
- Facilitation of commerce and services for businesses online and
- Reduced cost of transactions and promotion of competition
Problems faced by the project:
Uncoordinated works involving roads along which the optical fibre is being laid. These include road repairs, utility companies laying pipes and other works that have effects like possible breaks on the fibre system. The Ministry of ICT is addressing this through a coordinating mechanism involving the Ministry of Works & Transport and other key stakeholders in road activities.
Sensitisation and training of the user base especially on the e-Government infrastructure. Mulira says in order to address this, teams have been created within each ministry and trained to provide first-level user support within the respective ministries to complement the ICT ministry's support.
Initial threats to the project
Rapid advancement of ICTs where by any delays in implementing the e-Government infrastructure would render the technology outdated. The ministry was tasked to implement e-Government services on a fast track basis and incorporate an assessment of technology direction, at least for the foreseeable future.
Fears expressed by local telecom firms that they were also deploying their own "fiber-optic" backbone. But according to Mulira, the local firms are laying cables under the third phase of the project that stretches from Busia/Malaba to Jinja and from Kampala to Mbarara. Mulira says the Government will provide another optical fiber to complement those laid by the local telecom companies.
Another is limited knowledge about ICTs and insufficient infrastructure upcountry. The Government was advised to plan properly, develop people's knowledge about ICT and develop users of national data transmission backbone services.
Need for continuity of leadership since the ICT ministry is young and the need to continuously nurture the development.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Davis Weddi
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 04.02.2009
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