In the current business environment, information systems, the Internet and global communication networks are creating new opportunities for organisational coordination and innovation. Current practice has been satellite-based communication links, but the associated costs are prohibitive and result in minimised access size of paths, (bandwidth) leading to slow Internet speeds.
To address the above, the Government, through the ICT ministry, decided to implement the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure (NBI/EGI). This entails laying of fibre optic cables and installation of related equipment. The fibre optic cable will link Uganda to the submarine cables on the East African coast, providing access to the rest of the world through Kenya.
The project has two key components; the NBI and EGI, which will be implemented in three phases at a cost of $106m (sh219b). The first phase was the EGI and its objective was to provide connectivity to government ministries and departments, including high-tech communication services called TETRA for the Uganda Police, at a cost of $30m (sh62b). This component was designed for internal government use, commonly referred to as government-to-government services.
Since the phase was to connect ministries, only Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja and Bombo were connected, with a total distance of 168km of laid fibre and related equipment.
Phases II and III of the NBI constitute the remaining areas of the country, including establishing a high tech government data centre. A backbone is like a digital highway or main road, it covers enough locations strategically spaced across the country from which links can be established to serve the surrounding areas.
Phases II and III shall cover 1,900km at a cost of $61m(sh126b) and $15m (sh31b), respectively.
In planning, designing and sizing a national backbone project, many factors are considered — the terrain, geographical spread/coverage, fibre capacity to meet potential demand based on size of the target population, costs of civil works, etc. For example, laying 10km of fibre in the countryside is quite different from laying 10km in urban areas. In terms of geographical spread, the technology used to cover communication signals over a long distance between sites is different of areas near each other.
The demand in terms of numbers of potential users determines the power of the fibre cable in terms of traffic it can handle simultaneously. It is, therefore, erroneous to simply compare costs of one project to another without considering a multitude of factors.
In the discussions, direct comparison of costs between the Uganda project and that of Rwanda were made, asking why the Ugandan one is $126m for 2,100km and the latter $38m for 2,300km (in some reports it is 1,300km).
First, the contracted cost of the Uganda project implementation for the laying of the fibre, equipment and training, inter alia, as per the loan, has a total of $54m for the e-Government component ($30m in Phase I and $24m in Phases II & III) and the National Backbone Infrastructure is $62m totalling to $106m. The additional $20m is counterpart funding by the Government which includes taxes and clearing.
As per standard practice, taxes are always budgeted for in government procurements, although they are not actual physical money paid out, they are accounting book entries. The figure of $38m for the Rwanda project, which has been continuously reflected in the discussions, is the contract cost and may not reflect the other costs such as taxes and clearing. Comparison should strictly be on the national backbone components, which is the $62m against the $38m since the Rwanda project does not include the e-Government infrastructure component.
National backbone projects are designed to cater for current and future needs of the country. The traffic capacity can be increased by changing the devices that send the traffic, not the fibre.
Each country bases its requirements on the potential demand which is determined by the size of the population and geographical spread. Consequently, the technologies used are different. In Uganda, because of the relatively larger geographical spread and population with potentially higher traffic demand, there is need to send signals across sites which are relatively far from each other whilst catering for higher traffic.
For example, a signal from Kampala to Gulu, which is about 330km requires more intermediary “boosters” to ensure it does not lose strength (attenuation). The fibre cable laid is 24 core or strands of fibre and in Uganda the technology for the stations is largely what is called Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), which combines and transmits multiple signals simultaneously using the same fibre.
This technology has a traffic carrying capacity of 2.5 Gb/s or two and a half billion signals per second on one fibre strand. The alternate technology is called Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), which has a capacity of 155.2 Mb/s or one hundred and fifty five million signals per second. In other words, DWDM has 16 times more capacity.
The current population in Uganda is about 30 million and estimated to rise to over 40 million by 2017, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. There is, therefore, need for the DWDM technology, hence, relatively higher costs.
Another aspect of the discussion is the cutting of the cable. In laying fibre cable, just like other projects with routes on main roads, certain standards are set, including the distance off the main road and depth of the cable. Implementation of the NBI coincided with major road works along certain routes, especially, Jinja and Bombo roads, leading to cable being accidentally cut in some cases. This issue was addressed through joint coordination between the ICT ministry and that of works, together with relevant agencies. But the problem would still re-occur on ground but systematically resolved. However, the NBI was designed with resilient packet rings to ensure that should a breakdown occur, the traffic can automatically be re-routed for communications continuity.
The NBI/EGI project is vital in preparing the country for full participation in the new information age. As in any project, it has had expected setbacks, but these would continue to be addressed and resolved.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Dr Ham-Mukasa Mulira
Quelle/Source: The New Vision, 19.08.2009
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